Round 17: Taipans lose tight affair to 36ers

CQUniversity Cairns Taipans (96) lost to Adelaide 36ers (99)
Round 17 | Cairns Convention Centre
Next Game: Taipans at Wildcats, Friday 3 February 8:30pm AEST

SUMMARY

The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans couldn’t quite close the regular season at Cairns Convention Centre on a winning note with the Adelaide 36ers taking away a thrilling 99-96 win.

It was a tight affair all evening and both teams made their own runs with the Taipans playing a third game in six days, and still missing Keanu Pinder while the 36ers were playing for the first time in nine days.

In the end, Adelaide outscored Cairns 10 points to six over the last four minutes to go from a point down to winning by three.

The Taipans missed their first seven field goals with Adelaide up 12-1 before Bul Kuol got them on the board with a driving layup four minutes in.

The Snakes worked back into the game with three balls to Ben Ayre and DJ Hogg to limit Adelaide's lead to 25-24 at quarter-time.

Early in the second period the 36ers were back out to a seven-point lead, and nine soon after. However, Cairns then finished the half with the last 12 points including the last nine to Waardenburg including his second three-pointer.

That put the Taipans in front 53-50 on the back of his 19-point performance on a perfect 5/5 shooting and near perfect 7/8 free-throw shooting.

It was a third quarter full of runs from both teams with the Taipans making the first break going up nine on the back of an 11-5 start to the half. When Hogg hit a triple, they were up 64-55.

The 36ers scored the next nine points to tie scores up but then it was time for the Snakes to pull away once more.

When Ayre and Kuol completed the 10-0 run with three-point bombs, the Taipans were up 10 and the Orange Army was roaring. But Adelaide answered with the last eight points including a three from Ian Clark to cut the Snakes advantage to 77-75 at three quarter-time.

Cleveland scored eight straight points for Adelaide to put his team up two but Hogg regained the lead for Cairns with his fourth three-pointer.

Then it was the turn for Franks to nail five consecutive points and that put the Sixers up 94-90 with 3:24 to play.

Not long after Cleveland hit his fourth from long-range to push the 36ers lead out to five and a strong take and finish from Clark kept Adelaide on top three with 31.6 seconds to play.

It was quite the dramatic finish from there. A foul from Kyrin Galloway on Waardenburg was overturned before the Taipans forced the turnover but Shannon Scott couldn’t complete the layup.

Cleveland missed two free-throws and the Snakes had one last chance, but Cleveland was able to force the turnover on McCall at halfcourt and the game was done with Adelaide winning by three.

STATISTICS

For the Taipans, it takes destiny out of their own hands in terms of finishing top two. They are 17-10 with a game in Perth on Friday remaining, but if New Zealand wins both the Breakers will claim second.

New Zealand finishes the season on the road to bottom two teams the Illawarra Hawks and Brisbane Bullets.

It was a high quality affair from both teams with just the combined 18 turnovers while Adelaide shot 52 per cent from the floor and 13/26 at the three-point line with Cairns going 43 per cent overall and 14/36 from deep.

Sam Waardenburg set a new NBL career high with 26 points for Cairns while shooting 7/13 from the floor, 3/5 from downtown and 9/10 at the foul line.

DJ Hogg produced another 26 points and eight rebounds with 4/10 from long-range with Bul Kuol contributing 15 points and six rebounds.

Ben Ayre also scored 11 points with 3/5 three-point shooting while Tahjere McCall contributed eight points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, Shannon Scott five points and six assists, Jonah Antonio three points, and Majok Deng two points and four rebounds.

STATEMENTS

Head Coach Adam Forde: 

"We had our chances, right. It was going to be that type of momentum swinging game back and forth, there's a lot of similarities between us and Adelaide with our style of play. We came out of the gates really flat at both ends and it showed. There's a part if you think it might be the three games in six days, it might be the point of the season where it's just a bit of a grind and we've got some sore bodies. Then what was really good was the boys picked up and got it back to where we made it a one-point game at the end of the first. Then we got on a bit of a run, they went on a run and at the end of the game, it wasn’t without its chances. We go back and reflect, and we messed up on a couple of rotations through no one's real fault. We could argue about what was or wasn't a foul, but the reality is that we had our chances on multiple instances. It was pleasing in the sense that we stayed competitive, but it's still a loss."

Taipans Point Guard Shannon Scott:

"In hindsight obviously I would like to figure out how to finish that layup, but in my opinion we shouldn’t have been in that position anyway. We should have done some things earlier in the game that would have stopped it being down to a last possession game. I've got to be better out there especially for my team throughout the whole game, but obviously you want to get that last shot back and make that layup."