Taipans battle hard after slow start at home to Phoenix

A slow start made it tough for the CQUniversity Cairns Taipans to ever make up the gap against a focused and determined South East Melbourne Phoenix on ANZAC Day, but Venky Jois, Tad Dufelmeier and Mojave King were among those Snakes to compete hard.

The Taipans returned home to the Pop-Up Arena on Sunday evening for a rare NBL game to be held on ANZAC Day, and while the Snakes were coming in having won two of their last three games and the Phoenix on a three-game losing streak, it was the visitors who opened on fire.

It was a horror opening to the game from the Taipans with the Phoenix desperate to avoid a fourth straight defeat and to consolidate their position inside the NBL top four.

South East Melbourne opened up the game with 18-2 advantage during the first five minutes.

Virtually the rest of the game things were relatively even, but the Taipans had to use too much energy just to stem the tide even things up, that they could never really seriously threaten to reduce the gap and pull off what would have been a third win in the last four games.

But having said that, the Snakes did finish the opening quarter with some momentum thanks to Mojave King having outscored the Phoenix 14 points to 11 over the final five minutes.

The Snakes also did well for the second quarter and closed the gap to just eight points by half-time so they had a chance to make a move at the start of the second half to make a real game of it, and put the pressure back on the Phoenix.

But it wasn’t to be and South East Melbourne did enough to complete the job and record the eventual 86-66 win and to snap their losing slide, maintain their spot in the top four and celebrate the 450th NBL game of Adam Gibson in style.

Cam Gliddon had never hit a three-point shot as an opposition player back in Cairns after starting his NBL career with the Taipans, but he had a big night for South East Melbourne on Sunday finishing with 22 points and seven rebounds while going 4/8 from three-point territory.

There were again encouraging signs for the Taipans as the night unfolded and that's especially the case when you eliminate the 18-2 start in the first five minutes with the game pretty much even from that point on.

In just his second game for the Snakes, Venky Jois showed what sort of energy he's going to be able to bring to the group for the rest of the season. He might have still played less than 19 minutes of court time, but produced 12 points and eight rebounds including a couple of big throwdowns.

Tad Dufelmeier was match-winner back on Friday in Tasmania and continued to show he has a big NBL future on Sunday with 11 points, seven rebounds and two assists for the Taipans.

Mojave King had his moments of stepping up big too with 11 points and seven rebounds while Nate Jawai again threatened to dominate on occasions for 10 points, eight rebounds and two steals.

Scott Machado finished with six points and four assists for the Snakes, Fabijan Krslovic six points and two rebounds, George Blagojevic three points and a rebound, Mirko Djeric three points and two assists, Jordan Ngatai two points, two assists and two steals, and Jarrod Kenny two points.

Whether it was the absence of Cam Oliver, Majok Deng and Kouat Noi, or the late schedule change to host the Phoenix on ANZAC Day and not the Perth Wildcats, Taipans coach Mike Kelly could have made any number of excuses post-match.

But that's not how the reigning NBL Coach of the Year operates.

"I wish I could say that was the case, but no," he said.

"Everybody's schedule has been disrupted. They came out and went to the rack and we let them get there, no excuses for that.

"We were ready to go, we knew we were coming back to play a game at 5pm on Sunday."

The two teams now do it all again next Sunday also at the Cairns Pop-Up Arena.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 15

CQUNIVERSITY CAIRNS TAIPANS 66 (Jois 12, Dufelmeier 11, King 11)

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 86 (Gliddon 22, Te Rangi 13, Adnam 12) 

BOX SCORE