Taipans celebrate festive season with stunning win

The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans will enter Christmas on a high having strung wins together on the back of the most dominant performance to beat the Adelaide 36ers 93-67 at Cairns Convention Centre on Saturday night.

The Snakes continue to be a dominant force at the Cairns Convention Centre having won their last nine games in the building having played at the Pop-up Arena last season while it was being renovated.

Nobody could have seen the emphatic nature of Saturday night's performance coming, though, especially with the Taipans coming into the game without three potential starters – Scott Machado, Jordan Ngatai and Mirko Djeric.

However, right from the outset this was a Taipans team on a mission to show the rest of the league what they were capable of. They did that in the most emphatic fashion with the lead growing to as much as 40 points late in the game highlighting their pure dominance of the 36ers.

While Adelaide closed the margin somewhat late, it was a performance to savour heading into Christmas for the Taipans.

There was so much to like about the performance from the Snakes. As a team, they shot 48 per cent from the field with their impressive team play highlighted by 29 assists, 12 steals and six blocks.

Eight players from Cairns all scored as well with five of them hitting a three-pointer as they put Adelaide to the sword.

Tahjere McCall responded to the call for him to step up as the major playmaker in the absence of Machado, and he set the tone with 13 points, nine assists, five rebounds and five steals.

A pair of former Sixers had nights out too with Majok Deng delivering 23 points and seven rebounds on shooting 5/7 from three-point range while Keanu Pinder had 15 points and five boards.

Stephen Zimmerman was ultra-impressive too with 18 points, nine rebounds and four assists while even hitting a three with rookie Bul Kuol relishing his start with eight points, four assists and two steals.

Nate Jawai added six points, four assists and three rebounds, Kouat Noi five points, five rebounds and two assists, and Jarrod Kenny five points, four boards and four assists.

Cairns coach Adam Forde remains undefeated in charge of the Taipans at the Convention Centre, and he felt the group feeling more comfortable was a big factor in the performance.

"Obviously it was one of those weeks where I felt most comfortable in the training floor. I felt most comfortable than I had in a long time going into this game knowing that there was a level of focus. Even with the players out, I knew we were zoned in," Forde said.

"Our identity and collective is trying not to make sure it is one or two individuals that get it done. 
The season is going to be won and lost on how our whole team plays. The collective. 

"The consistent with us is what we can control and we find that is on the defensive end. The job was done defensively and we tried to reward ourselves on the offensive end. No one played outside themselves. They played to their potential. Everyone stepped up. "

Stephen Zimmerman and Tahjere McCall set the tone with Cairns' first six points before Kouat Noi knocked down a three on the way to a 15-10 opening.

Then after Adelaide responded with the next five points, Cairns took over emphatically starting with another inside bucket to Zimmerman before Bul Kuol drained a three.

Pinder then took over against his former team including a thunderous one-handed throwdown on a breakaway after he stole the ball off ex-teammate Daniel Johnson.

The Snakes led 31-20 by the end of the opening quarter with McCall delivering eight points and five assists, Zimmerman eight points and with them scoring 10 points off the seven Adelaide turnovers.

The Taipans kept the momentum going into the second quarter too with the lead getting out to 17 on the back of three balls from Majok Deng and Kuol, and another basket to McCall inside.

Cairns then finished the first half with the last eight points including an offensive board from Zimmerman and turnaround jumper to beat the buzzer for the 54-33 lead.

If the first half was dominant enough, the Taipans rammed home the advantage even further in the second. They would go on a stunning 14-0 run midway through the third period with Jarrod Kenny and Pinder hitting triples with Deng nailing two more of his own as the lead ballooned to 35.

It was then 36 when Deng hit yet another three-point bomb before Cairns went into three quarter-time up 77-43.

The party continued in the fourth quarter starting with a dunk from Deng before Pinder and Zimmerman both hit three balls. Kouat Noi extended the lead to 40 for the home team.

Even though Adelaide finished the game with an 18-4 run but it didn’t take away from the performance of Cairns who went on to win by 26.

The Snakes now get to enjoy Christmas on the back of back-to-back wins before taking on the Brisbane Bullets at Nissan Arena on Boxing Day.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 3

CQUNIVERSITY CAIRNS TAIPANS 93 (Deng 23, Zimmerman 18, Pinder 15)

ADELAIDE 36ERS 67 (Hannahs 20, Humphries 12, Johnson 12) 

BOX SCORE