Snakes catch fire to blow Hawks away

The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans turned around a 12-point deficit in style to open the NBL Cup on Saturday delivering a blistering second half to beat the Illawarra Hawks 101-95 in a cracking contest.

The opening of four weeks of the NBL Cup in Melbourne where every team plays one another got underway at John Cain Arena on Saturday afternoon.

The Taipans entered the month long event with a 2-6 record for the NBL season and these games will count to the overall season, and things then weren’t looking good halfway through the third quarter.

Having already lost to the Hawks twice in Cairns this season, the Snakes found themselves 12 points behind halfway through the quarter and they needed to dig deep.

They certainly did that and from that moment on, the Taipans finished the third quarter outscoring the Hawks 23 points to 14, and then that continued in the final term with the Snakes winning it 33 points to 24 to take away the superb six-point victory.

The winners of the NBL Cup will be determined by the team that wins the most points across their eight games. Three points are given for a win and then a point is available for the team that wins each individual quarter and the Taipans come out of this opener with six of the seven points.

It was a stunning performance over those last 15 minutes for the Taipans but Scott Machado was brilliant the whole game and he ended up taking the points in a fascinating match up with Tyler Harvey.

Machado delivered 31 points, eight rebounds and six assists and went 4/7 from downtown but it was a game where the longer it went on, the more support he received too.

Jordan Ngatai played the best of his 67-game NBL career enjoying his increased role with 17 points and four rebounds while draining 5/7 from three-point range.

Mirko Djeric was a welcome return too with 16 points and five assists while hitting 4/8 from deep and as a team, the Snakes shot the ball phenomenally well from beyond the arc to go 18/35.

Majok Deng added 13 points and six rebounds, Cam Oliver 13 points and eight boards, George Blagojevic four points, Kouat Noi four points and three rebounds, and Jarrod Kenny three points, four rebounds and three assists.

The Taipans improved second half showing wasn’t only evident in their shooting, but they also had just three turnovers after having nine in the first half of which the Hawks were able to score 12 points from.

Taipans coach Mike Kelly praised his players for their ability to work through the defensive issues which saw them fall behind.

"We are very stoked to get a win against a really good team who has been playing well," Kelly said.

"I thought the guys did well at making shots when we were struggling in the first half through to the third quarter where we went down 12.

"We have been talking about how we react to situations like that. The guys got through that really well then we started to make shots and it felt great and then the players felt great."

Majok Deng opened the game with a triple for the Taipans before Jordan Ngatai capped a 7-0 run by connecting from downtown himself. 

The Hawks then went on their own 13-3 run but the Snakes finished the quarter with the last six points with four of them from George Blagojevic to be up 19-18 and claim the first available point of the NBL Cup.

Illawarra blew the game open on the back of the shooting of Tyler Harvey and Justinian Jessup in the second term and were up by 12 with two minutes to go. 

But Cairns responded well with nine of the last 11 points of the half to be down just five at the break with Ngatai hitting from way downtown on the buzzer.

Cam Oliver had just two first half points but opened the second half with a triple for Cairns, but it was Illawarra who took back over to lead 57-45 after a four-point play from Harvey.

Illawarra still led by double-figures when the Taipans started to turn the tide. Machado scored up one end and then thought he had a clean steal on Harvey. 

When the referee disagreed, coach Mike Kelly used the first Coach's Challenge available in the NBL Cup and was successful, and Mirko Djeric nailed a three the next possession.

It then became a shootout with Machado hitting three from downtown in a minute for Cairns before Deng ended the third quarter with another to bring the margin back to just three.

Jarrod Kenny then levelled scores and Djeric put the Taipans in front to start the fourth before another pair of three balls from Ngatai and Djeric made it a six-point advantage.

That would become eight soon after with Ngatai nailing his fourth triple, and his fifth of the game would put Cairns up nine with 2:30 remaining.

The Hawks got back within four a couple of times but the Taipans got the job down at the foul line to win consecutive games for the first time in #NBL21.

Next up for the Taipans is Melbourne United on Monday evening.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 6
NBL CUP WEEK 1

CQUNIVERSITY CAIRNS TAIPANS 101 (Machado 31, Ngatai 17, Djeric 16)

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 95 (Harvey 24, Deng 17, Jessup 17) 

POINTS AWARDED – Cairns Taipans 6, Illawarra Hawks 1

BOX SCORE