Taipans fall short of comeback against Perth

Taking to the court without two of their starters – Taran Armstrong sidelined with an ankle sprain, and Tanner Groves with a calf injury – it was always going to be a difficult task for Cairns to continue their winning streak.

Starting quickly out of the gate, Sam Waardenburg opened his account early to put up five quick points and hand the first lead to the Taipans.

With Jonah Antonio working hard to keep the ball out of Bryce Cotton’s, his teammates looked to build an early lead but were unable to hit their shots, allowing Perth into the contest.

Taking advantage, the Wildcats attacked through the paint, quickly building an early 11-point lead.

Despite their lead, Rob Edwards refused to bow to the rising pressure and alongside Kyle Adnam mounted a late fightback to reduce the lead going into the first break.

Taking advantage of the lack of no full-time center for Cairns, the Wildcats focused their attack close to the rim – going to work to maintain their narrow lead over the Taipans.

However, Antonio stood up to ensure that it remained a close contest, with the sharpshooter only missing one of his five attempts from outside the arc in the first half.

Late in the second quarter the intensity stepped up a level from the Taipans, working hard to clean up the glass and give themselves second chances with their shots struggling to drop.

In a complete opposite manner, Perth were able to score at will, with Cotton leading the charge on his way to 35 points – his best performance to date in Cairns.

Struggling to limit the guard’s damage, the focus for the Taipans turned to ticking their own score over, with Pedro Bradshaw working to trade blow for blow with the Wildcats.

As momentum swung between the two teams throughout the third quarter, the crowd sensed a late comeback and looked to re-energise their side. Aiming to capitalise, Kyrin Galloway and Waardenburg dealt out highlight plays to swing the momentum further in their favour.

Holding onto an eight-point lead at the final break, pressure mounted on the Wildcats to maintain their lead, as they missed all six of their opening shots for the quarter – forcing Perth to call a timeout to refocus.

With the Taipans feeling a late charge building, they put their defence on show – putting pressure on the Wildcats every possession, as Antonio worked hard off the ball to keep the ball out of Cotton’s lethal hands.

Led by Edwards, Cairns looked in with a chance of forcing the game to overtime – forcing a five-second violation to be handed the ball with 1.2 seconds left.

Only trailing by three points, Edwards looked ready to send the Perth to their second consecutive overtime game but was unable to hit the buzzer beater.

Once more providing pivotal points on the offensive end, the Cairns import put up 24 points and seven rebounds – returning Edwards to the spot as the NBL’s leading scorer.

Fellow import Pedro Bradshaw has continued his adaption to the league, putting up his best performance to-date of 12 points, eight rebounds and two steals.

“What’s crazy to think is that we had a chance to take that into OT,” said Taipans Head Coach Adam Forde.

“The reality was that every time we sort of closed the margin, we couldn’t quite get over that last little bit of hurdle, and it was off the back of just errors.

“The execution out of that last timeout in terms of getting the five second call and what we wanted to play was probably the best thing we executed all night.”

“I think we shot ourselves in the foot a lot of times – we had a lot of mental lapses on both ends of the ball, and things that were crucial we didn’t take advantage of,” explained Taipans forward Pedro Bradshaw.

“For the most part, I thought we had a lot of energy. The crowd really helps a lot, and how they show out for us every home game. But again, it just comes down to our own execution.”

Sliding one spot down the ladder to fifth, the Kenfrost Homes Cairns Taipans now travel south to battle the Sydney Kings at 1:30pm on Sunday afternoon.

They’ll return home to battle the Illawarra Hawks on Saturday 19 September at the Cairns Convention Centre – tickets for the 7:00pm tip-off game are available HERE.