Round 8: Taipans dethrone Kings in OT

CQUniversity Cairns Taipans (94) def. Sydney Kings (88)
Round 8 | Cairns Convention Centre
Next Game: Taipans at 36ers, Friday 2 December 6:30pm AEST

SUMMARY

After a historic 17-game road winning run dating back to last season, the Sydney Kings have been dethroned and it took a spectacular Keanu Pinder performance for the CQUniversity Cairns Taipans to win 94-88 in overtime.

DJ Hogg shook off a rough Monday night at the Cairns Convention Centre for the Snakes to hit two massive threes late to force the game into overtime. 

Then in the extra period, it was all the Taipans with Pinder setting the tone and then a triple from Bul Kuol and floater from Tahjere McCall sealing the deal.

Xavier Cooks made his mark early on his early return from an ankle injury by scoring Sydney's first three baskets for a 6-2 lead, and when Justin Simon, Tim Soares and Derrick Walton Jr got going too, the Kings were up 15-8.

The Taipans got right back into it with three-pointers to DJ Hogg and Majok Deng and then Sydney only led by a point going into quarter-time on the back of a prayer on the buzzer to Sam Waardenburg for the Snakes.

The second quarter then became all about Keanu Pinder and Cooks at either end of the floor. They weren’t directly matching up too often, but were the central focus for their respective teams and involved in everything.

Looking to prove a point in the fight over who is the best in their position in the league, both emerging stars were aggressive and motivated. 

When it all settled, scores were locked at 44-44 at half-time with Pinder going into the break with 16 points and seven rebounds on 5/9 shooting with 6/8 from the foul line. Cooks also had 17 points and six boards on 7/12 shooting with 3/3 at the charity stripe.

While neither team shot well including a combined 5/29 from downtown, nine offensive rebounds for the Snakes were important but the Kings stayed close shooting 44 per cent from the floor opposed to 32.

It took five minutes of the third quarter for Cairns to make a field goal. In that time, Sydney scored seven points including a triple from Walton to led by six before Bul Kuol landed one from downtown for the home team.

Tahjere McCall then scored the Taipans' next three baskets to make it a one-point game again, but then the Kings responded once more including a pair of triples from Angus Glover to be up nine heading towards three quarter-time.

Sydney still led by 10 after three which became 14 to start the fourth term with two more buckets to Cooks. 

Another offensive rebound and putback from Cooks kept Sydney on top by eight, but then he fouled out with just over 3:30 on the clock and game turned dramatically.

In the end, two massive threes from Hogg and some key stops up the other end from the Taipans tied scores up and the game went to overtime when Walton's attempt on the buzzer was no good for Sydney.

Things continued to go the way of the Taipans and when Hogg pulled down an offensive rebound to score, and then Pinder posted up DJ Vasiljevic before dunking it, the home team was up four before getting another stop with under two minutes to go.

A huge dunk from Jordan Hunter and three-pointer from Glover kept Sydney within touching distance, but the Taipans had the answers and a three to Kuol and floater to McCall secured the eventual six-point win.

STATISTICS

Cairns will look at the box score and wonder how they won the game. They shot 36 per cent from the field, made just 8/39 from deep and were outrebounded by 11.

However, the Snakes did hound the Kings into 21 turnovers from which they scored 13 points while their aggression inside led to 36 trips to the foul line.

They also had Keanu Pinder, who unlike Cooks, didn’t foul out unlike last time against the Kings when Kouat Noi hit the game winner. Pinder finished the night with a game-winning 30 points, 13 rebounds and two assists for the Snakes on 8/16 shooting from the floor and 14/20 from the foul line.

Hogg might have had a rough first 35 minutes of the game, but stepped up when it mattered most for 20 points, five rebounds, three assists and two blocks.

Tahjere McCall added 18 points, four rebounds and four assists, Bul Kuol 12 points and three boards, and Sam Waardenburg nine points and 10 rebounds.

Majok Deng also chimed in with five points, three rebounds and two steals while Josh Davey had two rebounds in his two minutes.

STATEMENTS

Head Coach Adam Forde: 

"I won't lie, it was kinda frustrating. There was a couple of times earlier in the game when we had some really good looks, some wide open looks. We called a timeout or we had a quarter-time break or half-time, and just wanted to roll a play out and see how this works. We get a bit of momentum which was good but then sort of went away from it again, and then went to our default of trying to shoot ourselves out of it. I wouldn’t put it down to poor shot selection because I'm real particular about what our shot selection is, but the thing about it is what else can we go to when it's not dropping. There was a point where we looked dead and buried down 14, and I did a standing timeout but not to yell or to cuss. It was simply to ask what we want to do right now and if we want to grind this out through one possession at a time, or just go out and take turns. The boys responded and this is the group we recruited for. DJ struggled all game and he's a big time player, and he made the big time shots when it was needed. I felt real confident going into overtime and I felt momentum was in our favour. They went that small ball line-up so we targeted where we wanted to put that ball. What's great about this team is that we're able to generate turnovers, that's what the team's designed to do. If he shot drops, great, but if it doesn’t we find other ways to win. I'm very happy." 

Taipans Point Guard Shannon Scott:

"It was definitely about staying positive. The big part of our game is that we didn’t turn the ball over that much. We had 10 team turnovers and as long as we got a shot up, that's a good thing. We knew we just had to go back and get the stop on defence and we forced them into 21 turnovers, so that's 11 extra possessions that we had which are going to add up at the end of the game. It's just about staying strong and sound with our defence."