Taipans open pre-season with win over Gaels

Keanu Pinder immediately looks right at home back at the Kenfrost Homes Cairns Taipans after 19 points in 24 minutes in his team's 91-79 NBL pre-season win over the visiting St Mary's College on Wednesday night.

It was a continuation of the Australian tour for the Gaels who already had hit outs against the Illawarra Hawks, Sydney Kings and South East Melbourne Phoenix before taking on the Taipans in Far North Queensland.

It was a first hit out for Cairns ahead of NBL27 and while Jonah Bolden, Jaylin Galloway, Luke Paul, Jaylon Brown and Jack McVeigh weren’t available, there was plenty for Head Coach Adam Forde to like particularly with his front court.

Not only did Pinder finish with 19 points, four rebounds and two assists on 6/11 shooting ahead of his return season in Cairns where he's played his career-best basketball, but he had good support too.

Kyrin Galloway delivered 18 points, four rebounds and two assists with Kobe Williamson adding 15 points and seven boards after joining the lineup for the pre-season.

The Taipans started their first pre-season hit out encouragingly with a 20-14 opening quarter before taking charge of the contest with 27 points to 15 in the second frame.

That saw Cairns shooting 50 per cent from the field to the 33 from the Gaels even though the visitors got up an extra seven shots attempts thanks to collecting 14 offensive rebounds.

But St Mary's only shot 1/8 from the foul line including Salih Altuntas going 0/4 with his interesting one-handed technique.

Pinder was already up to 13 points by half-time for the home side with 7/7 foul shooting while Williamson also had 11 points and five rebounds.

St Mary's did build some momentum in the third quarter trying to avoid a third loss on their tour down under and they had 27 points to 21 in the term with Wollongong product Josh Dent up to 14 points by three quarter-time while they collected another six offensive rebounds.

Cairns were still clinging to the 12-point lead by three quarter-time and went on to win by that margin despite getting up 12 fewer shot attempts than the Gaels thanks to 25 offensive rebounds to 10.

But they did shoot 48 per cent from the field to 39 along with 9/26 to 6/23 from the outside, and 20/24 to 13/24 from the foul line.

Along with what the front court trio did for the Taipans, Reyne Smith finished with 13 points and two assists but did go 0/4 from the outside and was pumped when he was able to knock one down as soon as the final buzzer sounded.

Shaun Bruce is back in Cairns for NBL27 and he ran the ship for the Taipans on the back of a standout NBL1 North season at Logan Thunder and ended up with 11 points and nine assists with Brody Nunn contributing seven points, three assists, and two steals, and Jonah Antonio six points (who has also joined the team for the pre-season).

Vangelis Zougris ended up with 21 points, five rebounds and there assists for St Mary's with Aussie pair Josh Dent (17 points, five rebounds) and Luke Fennell (11 points, two assists, 3/6 three-point shooting, impressive.

CAIRNS TAIPANS 91 – ST MARY'S COLLEGE 79

Cairns Taipans
Keanu Pinder – 19 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists
Kyrin Galloway – 18 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists
Kobe Williamson – 15 points, 7 rebounds
Reyne Smith – 13 points, 2 assists
Shaun Bruce – 11 points, 9 assists, 3 rebounds

St Mary's Gaels
Vangelis Zougris – 21 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists
Josh Dent – 17 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists
Luke Fennell – 11 points, 2 assists
Mantas Juzenas – 10 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals