Snakes fire on NYE to beat United again

The two best performances for the Cairns Taipans this NBL season have now come against the ladder leading Melbourne United after an impressive 95-78 New Year's Eve home victory.

The Snakes put up 115 points in a 12-point win in Melbourne against United back on December 3 to snap a three-game losing run. They came into Sunday's match up having lost their past two once again.

A sold out Cairns Convention Centre greeted the Snakes for their annual New Year's Eve fixture and they produced a standout performance from the start.

They were under control offensively with a combination of getting under Melbourne's defence along with their three ball falling too as they went 10-of-22 from behind the arc.

Little-used forward Josh Roberts lifted Cairns to the 26-19 lead by quarter-time before it was Sam Mennenga who took charge in the second term to help the Snakes to the 45-40 half-time edge.

The Taipans lead was out to 10 midway through the third quarter, but Melbourne gained the momentum for the only time of the game when a foul was overturned on a Dean Vickerman coach challenge.

Melbourne scored 11 straight points with Chris Goulding nailing three triples directly from that to see United hit the front, but again the Snakes responded.

Mennenga hit his fourth three of the game to give Cairns the 66-63 three quarter-time lead before the home team dominated the fourth frame.

The Taipans scored 14 consecutive points to go from four up to leading by 18, and then winning by 17.

Cairns improved 9-11 to remain in a play-in position while handing Melbourne their first road loss of the season.

While Mennenga starred for the Snakes with 22 points and 10 rebounds on 6-of-11 three-point shooting, he was far from the only standout.

Patrick Miller top-scored with 31 points to go with five assists with Tahjere McCall adding 15 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds, and Bul Kuol 12 points, five boards and four assists.

For a host of reasons, Taipans coach Adam Forde was delighted with the performance.

"Tonmight we had everyone who stepped on the court playing well so that's where I kept with the eight guys that played," he said.

"Four of them are rookies and we just rode with that momentum. It helped that Melbourne didn’t zone either which was also a benefit and the guys were good."

United remains in first place at 14-4 with Jo Lual-Acuil finishing with 15 points, Chris Goulding 14 and Ian Clark 14.

Coach Vickerman was frustrated United couldn't really build any momentum for significant patches.

"I'm calling a timeout in the first two minutes of the game and I didn’t think we came out with the right intent," he said.

"We made some changes and in the second quarter we knuckled down and were better, then in the third we wanted some calls going to the rim.

"You're on the road, we have to be better than that and then after we got locked in again, we had another lapse at the start of the fourth where we let it get out."