Taipans narrowly fall in Queensland derby

The Kenfrost Homes Cairns Taipans fell short in the Queensland derby on Saturday night, trailing the Brisbane Bullets 88-92 at the Cairns Convention Centre.

After his history making debut in Sydney during Round 4, Alex Higgins-Titsha earned a promotion to the starting lineup in only his third NBL game – taking the place of the injured Pedro Bradshaw.

Initially opening the scoring and outrebounding their hosts early on, the Bullets struggled to tick the score over and missed all their opening shots from deep.

Determined to not fall behind early, Rob Edwards took control to start ticking Cairns' scoreboard over and catch up with Brisbane.

With the Taipans holding level with them, Bullets guard James Batemon stepped onto the court to hit all three of his shots from deep to open his account – pushing them ahead.

Wanting to answer back, Edwards looked to lead his Taipans and put up a quick eight points to limit the visitor’s lead to five points at the first break, before immediately resuming his onslaught when he returned to the court.

Helping his fellow guard, Jackson Makoi took advantage of his time on the court – with the duo combining to give Cairns a narrow lead as the second quarter carried on.

With the momentum swinging in the contest and neither team able to get their head in front, Sam Waardenburg stood up – delivering a high energy dunk on Josh Bannan to bring the Convention Centre to life.

Only continuing his lights out performance, Edwards looked to push them ahead whilst hitting four of six attempts from range to lead the scoring on both sides with 16 points as the second quarter approached its end.

As the Bullets continued their dominance on the glass, the Taipans hit their shots to keep themselves in the game – before a deep shot from Waardenburg gave them a three-point lead at half-time.

Helping his fellow forward restrict the Bullets from cleaning up more boards, Higgins-Titsha ended the first half of his first career start with an impressive seven points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Only wanting to continue his efforts into the second half, the Taipans development player cleaned up a quick three rebounds after the break whilst his teammates went unconscious on the offensive end.

Hitting a series of unanswered shots from deep, the Cairns starting lineup were able to build a nine-point lead minutes into the second half.

Raising the intensity on the defensive end to match their offensive energy, the Taipans brought the Cairns Convention Centre to life – with the Bullets feeling the pressure as they struggled to get their shots off before the clock expired.

Not shying away from the lights, Higgins-Titsha led the energised side whilst on his way to a double-double to push Cairns ahead to a nine-point margin going into the final quarter.

Still leading the battle on the boards, the visitors slowly crept their way back into the battle – before Edwards continued his scoring masterclass to keep the Taipans narrowly in front.

Stringing a series of baskets together, Keandre Cook slowly edged his Bullets ahead for their first lead since the opening half, before the Brisbane duo of Batemon and Casey Prather took hold to lead the visitors to a win late.

Returning to his high-scoring ways, Taipans guard Rob Edwards led the scoring with 27 points, alongside two rebounds and three assists.

Forward Sam Waardenburg once more made major contributions across the court, putting up 21 points, eight rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block, as well as drawing six fouls, whilst guard Jackson Makoi closed his night with 13 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals.

In his first career start, development player Alex Higgins-Titsha impressed the Orange Army with a double-double - ending with 11 points, 11 rebounds, two assists and two steals, whilst also playing the second most minutes by a Taipan.

“We’ve just got a lot of guys out there that are still learning how to win, because we’ve got a lot of our main guys on the bench cheering them on,” said Taipans Head Coach Adam Forde.

“And the thing is, Alex started in his third game that he’s been involved in – he’s never played college, and he hasn’t played anything higher than NBL1 East – and he came out on his debut start with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

“He’s playing his heart out, and so is Waardenburg, and so is Rob. We just need to get everybody some help.”

“We had a lot of guys that haven’t play an intense game like that, so there was a lot on Rob, and I feel like Taran and I can go out there and get him some open shots,” said new Taipans guard Deshon Taylor.

The Kenfrost Homes Cairns Taipans now return to Melbourne for a Sunday afternoon fixture, this time to face the South East Melbourne Phoenix for the first time this season. They’ll then host the New Zealand Breakers for Indigenous Round, from 4:30pm on Saturday 16 November – tickets are available HERE.