Taipans do so much right against Hawks

The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans did so much right for three quarters in Wollongong on Sunday but the Illawarra Hawks locked them down in the quarter on the way to an eventual 93-81 victory.

The Taipans came out firing at the WIN Entertainment Centre on Sunday to be up by as much as nine points during the second quarter and still by five at half-time with the offence flowing nicely putting up the 53 points.

The Hawks were able to limit the Taipans to just the six points in the third quarter but even then the Snakes continued to fight in the fourth term and got back to four on the back of a Mirko Djeric three ball, but it wasn’t quite to be and Illawarra went on to win by 12 as they hunt a finals berth.

Despite the end result that was a seventh consecutive defeat for the Taipans and how they struggled in the third term, and gave up the 20 offensive rebounds, they actually did a lot right and still were right in the game heading down the stretch.

Forcing the Hawks into shooting a 40-minute NBL record 45 three-point attempts proved a good philosophy considering they made just 12 of them, but the Snakes just couldn’t collect enough of the rebounds that resulted to take advantage.

Scott Machado was back to his best running the show for the Taipans finishing the game with 17 points and nine assists while shooting 5/9 from the floor and a perfect 6/6 at the foul line.

Majok Deng continues his fine form to close out the season since returning from injury with another 16 points and three rebounds with Mojave King putting up another 11 points on 4/7 shooting from three-point territory.

Mirko Djeric finished with 11 points and four assists while hitting 3/6 from deep as well while Venky Jois had eight points and four rebounds, and Nate Jawai six points, three boards, three assists and two steals.

Jordan Ngatai scored thee points, Tad Dufelmeier three to go with three assists, Jarrod Kenny three and Fabijan Krslovic two to go with four rebounds.

Taipans coach Mike Kelly can't fault the effort of his group, they were happy with the defensive job they did for the most part but ultimately no one likes losing.

"I think we all feel like puking right now truthfully. Losses don’t make you feel very good even though this is a great group of guys," Kelly said.

"They play hard and have stuck together, but we're not winning games. I like the group and the group likes each other, and I think they are great guys but everyone feels terrible.

"We wanted them taking contested threes or not being in rhythm when they shot, and I don’t know that we made them miss that many because I've seen Harvey make shots with a hand in his face and miss when he's wide open. 

"But we did what we needed to so we had a chance to win, we just didn’t finish our plays."

Kelly is never going to be happy accepting losses, and was frustrated by that third quarter and the offensive rebounds given up all night.

"We came out and didn’t execute like we needed to in that third. I think their defensive pressure was good and we didn’t answer that with good execution, and turned the ball over and didn't get great shots," Kelly said.

"You can't win giving them their shots back. They've got too many good shooters and scorers, and we gave them multiple chances. 

"They crashed the boards hard and some were long rebounds where we flew by the shooter and then hung out at the half court line hoping someone would grab it, and some were great effort plays by them. I think AJ had eight of them himself and you just can't do that."

The Taipans started the game well with a couple of early three-pointers to Mojave King and Scott Machado before back-to-back buckets from Majok Deng put the visitors up 14-9. Mirko Djeric nailed a three to keep Cairns up five and then Venky Jois had a finish to the quarter to savour.

He made a basket and was fouled, and then after missing the free-throw got the offensive rebound and the put back to give Cairns the 23-21 lead at quarter-time.

The Snakes then opened the second quarter on fire firstly with another make from Jois before 7-0 run made up of a Jarrod Kenny three, Machado free-throws and yet another Jois basket.

That had Cairns leading 32-23 and they would go on to maintain most of that advantage the rest of the half with three-pointers from Jordan Ngatai, King and Deng, before a clever finish from Machado to have the lead 53-48 by half-time.

It was then a third quarter to forget for the Taipans. Illawarra scored the first six points before King hit another three-pointer. The Hawks answered with the next 10 points before a Tad Dufelmeier triple for Cairns, but Illawarra again scored the last seven points to lead 71-59 after three.

The Taipans shook off that third quarter and started the fourth on fire beginning with a three-pointer from Djeric. They then went on a 7-0 run capped with King's three ball, and then another triple from Djeric and it was just a four-point ball game.

Even though the Hawks responded to put the game beyond doubt and to win by 12 in the end, the Taipans never gave up fighting to the finish.

The Taipans head back for their final home game of the season now on Wednesday night against the Brisbane Bullets at the Cairns Pop-Up Arena.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 19

CQUNIVERSITY CAIRNS TAIPANS 81 (Machado 17, Deng 16, King 12) 

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 93 (Jessup 24, Harvey 22, Froling 15)

BOX SCORE