Sydney hold off Cairns in a tight contest

The Kenfrost Homes Cairns Taipans were unable to repeat their Round 15 heroics against the Sydney Kings, falling 91-87 at Qudos Bank Arena on Sunday afternoon.

Welcoming back both AK Gak and Sam Waardenburg, the Taipans continued to fight undermanned with Jackson Makoi missing the contest as they attempted to remain undefeated in 2025.

Initially struggling to find the bottom of basket, the Taipans shot out to an early lead with Taran Armstrong and Waardenburg draining back-to-back triples to build a seven-point lead.

With their hosts unable to hit their own shots, cleaning up their misses became the focus for Cairns, with their goal to repeat their 55-41 Round 10 performance against the Kings.

Nearly doubling Sydney’s rebounding efforts early on – including not allowing an offensive rebound until late in the first quarter – Cairns were able to hold onto their lead, whilst former Taipan Kouat Noi hit shot after shot to limit the damage.

Rolling through 10 players in the opening term, the Kings searched for a way to even the contest in a low scoring quarter in which they were only able to put up 17 points.

Using the first break to regather, Sydney returned to action with their eyes focused on the margin – launching onto a 12-2 run to force Cairns into calling an early timeout.

Injecting Kyrin Galloway into the mix, the forward was able to kick-start the scoring – first cleaning up a Rob Edwards miss, before draining multiple triples to rack up 12 points by the main break.

Despite taking control of the rebounding contest and generating six extra looks at the basket, Sydney were only able to create a narrow three-point margin, before a Galloway jump shot on the buzzer brought it back to a single point.

Trading blow for blow once the second half began, it didn’t take long for Rob Edwards to warm up – starting a 4-11 run for Cairns to mimic Sydney’s opening to the second quarter.

Responding with their own 12-0 streak, the Kings were able to wrestle control back, however they weren’t able to extend the gap into double-digits.

Draining shots from deep and working their way to the free throw line, the duo of Kyle Adnam and Armstrong took control of Cairns’ offensive efforts, with the guard combination keeping the margin at two points as the matchup entered the final quarter.

With the Taipans entering the term with 10 more free throws attempts under their belt, the Kings looked to reduce the deficit by driving to the basket and drawing contact.

Utilising Cameron Oliver, Sydney sent the former-Taipan in to maintain their lead, with the American notching up a 15-point and 17 rebound double-double.

Answering back, Edwards continued to pile on the points – flying past 20 points for the night to level the contest.

As the final minutes of the contest approached, neither team was able to grab hold of the game with Noi answering Edward’s output by firing triple after triple to lead Sydney on the offensive end.

Leaning on their imports, the Taipans continued to match the Kings as the game approached its end, however the duo of Jaylen Adams and Noi increased their output to clinch the win.

Finishing his night with 25 points, Rob Edwards led Cairns’ efforts on the offensive end with the American also pulling down seven rebounds, with a dime and a steal

Taran Armstrong put up 22 points of his own, with the guard drawing seven fouls despite not committing one himself, and also ended with two assists, one board and one steal, with the guard duo only trailing Kouat Noi’s 27-point offensive output.

Equalling his best performance over the past two months, Kyrin Galloway contributed 12 points, four boards, one assists and a steal, with fellow forward Pedro Bradshaw putting up 10 points, six rebounds, an assist and a block.

“We knew that Sydney gets out in transition and run the pace, and we wanted to try and make it ugly – really slow it down and get through some sets – and we had stretches of that,” explained Taipans Head Coach Adam Forde.

“I love the guys – they were resilient to stay with it against a hell of a team, in a hell of a venue on a Sunday.

“The weeks have been no different during the losing streak – the boys have been uber-professional. I know that we’ve got a lot of dudes who are still finding their ways in their careers – like Tanner who is 25, and Pedro has just turned 26 – so it’s important that you don’t want to get caught up in the loses, you want to be caught up in the process.”

“I just went with the flow of the game and didn’t think too much of it – you never want to get caught up too much on one quarter, especially when there’s a whole half left to play,” said Taipans forward Kyrin Galloway.

“The win definitely helped, but our confidence never dropped. Obviously, it’s in the back of your mind when you’re on a losing streak, but I think that we knew that we were in those games, and we had chances to win a lot of those games.

“Coach always says, ‘win or lose, we’re going to approach it the same the next day’, so I think that even the losses before that, no matter what happened in the game, we were coming in the next day and just analysing the film and trying to get better as a team.”

The Kenfrost Homes Cairns Taipans will now host their first home game of the New Year, against the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Tuesday night. Tickets for the 6:30pm fixture are available HERE!