Taipans celebrate homecoming by beating 36ers

Down two starters and coming in on a five-game losing streak proved no concern as the CQUniversity Cairns Taipans celebrated their first home appearance in seven weeks with a strong performance to beat the Adelaide 36ers 79-65.

It had been a long stretch of 10 games over the last seven weeks since the Taipans last played at the Cairns Pop-Up Arena for a victory against the New Zealand Breakers, but they put that behind them with an impressive display on Sunday.

The Snakes threatened to pull away either side of quarter-time going on a 13-0 run and then they broke the game wide open for good during the third quarter. 

They would lead by as much as 16 and then get the job done well in the fourth term to win by 14 against a desperate 36ers team who were trying to avoid recording their own fifth consecutive defeat.

Despite the Taipans coming into the game without regular starting pair Majok Deng and Kouat Noi, and having won their last five games away from home, they returned with tremendous energy to perform in front of the Orange Army.

They ended being on top virtually all night and it was the superstar import duo of Cam Oliver and Scott Machado leading from the front.

Oliver finished with 19 points, 10 rebounds and two statement blocks in the fourth quarter on 7/10 shooting from the field and 3/5 from deep. Machado also had 17 points, six assists, four rebounds and two steals.

Mirko Djeric hit Cairns' first eight points of the game and had 13 for the game with Jarrod Kenny adding nine points, Mojave King eight, Fabijan Krslovic six, Nate Jawai four and Jordan Ngatai three.

Taipans coach Mike Kelly was delighted with the effort and energy he saw from his group for the whole four quarters more than anything.

"I thought there was great energy from our guys and also from the fans. It was a great combination. Even when things didn’t go well and we were up and down on the court, their energy continued to be good and I was really happy about that," Kelly said.

"I think if we have that consistently then the other stuff will work itself out as we continue to work. I thought in the first quarter they came out and made some shots, and for the whole first half we really couldn’t get in a flow and were turning the ball over. 

"But we continued to work with good energy and I was super excited to see us play with that energy consistently. We've been up and down with that and things have affected us when we haven’t played great, so it was great to see the guys battle through and have each other's backs as we fought."

Without Kouat Noi and Majok Deng there in the starting group, Mirko Djeric had the green light to shoot and he made the most of it to start the game with the first eight points for the Taipans including a pair of threes.

Scott Machado and Cam Oliver then got on the board too including Oliver throwing down a dunk, and when the Snakes ended the opening quarter with a 10-0 run which included two triples from Mojave King, they were able to lead 24-18 by quarter-time.

That became a 13-0 run for the Snakes to open the second quarter with a three-point play from Machado. Oliver then hit a pair of three balls with Machado hitting one of his own and Cairns' lead grew to 13.

Nate Jawai scored inside to keep it at double-figures before Jarrod Kenny hit one three, and then on half-time he nailed a stunner from half court to put Cairns up 46-34 and to go into the break with all the momentum.

The Taipans kept the momentum going to start the second half too and when Fabijan Krslovic capped off a 6-0 with a three-pointer, the lead was out to 16. But Adelaide closed the third quarter with a 10-2 run to cut the Taipans lead to 58-50 by three quarter-time.

Adelaide might have had a sniff, but Cairns quickly snuffed that out when Kenny knocked down another three to open the fourth quarter. 

The Taipans got back out to a 14-point edge, and while the Sixers got back within eight, the Snakes quickly closed the door again and a couple of big blocks from Oliver on Daniel Johnson and Jack McVeigh were pivotal. 

He would go on to score 10 points in the fourth quarter as well and Scott Machado helped close the game strongly with a three-point play before a dunk from Fabijan Krslovic, and the Snakes went on to win strongly by 14.

The Snakes now head back to Melbourne to take on Melbourne United on Friday night.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 11

CQUNIVERSITY CAIRNS TAIPANS 79 (Oliver 19, Machado 17, Djeric 13)

ADELAIDE 36ERS 65 (Johnson 21, McVeigh 15, Dech 11) 

BOX SCORE