Taipans return with fighting effort against Phoenix

Finally, the CQUniversity Cairns Taipans came back into the NBL season on Tuesday night in regional Victoria and while it wasn’t a victory against the South East Melbourne Phoenix, there were plenty of pleasing signs to take moving forward.

The Snakes were playing some good basketball up until this enforced 25-day break since their last game back on New Year's Eve against the Perth Wildcats. While that was a loss, given the absence of Tahjere McCall, Scott Machado and Mirko Djeric, it was a fighting performance.

Prior to that was a thumping win over the Adelaide 36ers and good win against the Tasmania JackJumpers, but that momentum was put on hold in a near month-long absence.

Then for Tuesday night's clash with the Phoenix at Traralgon's Gippsland Regional Indoor Stadium, the Snakes were still without Djeric and Machado with Kouat Noi joining them sidelined, but they still battled right to the end against South East Melbourne.

While the Phoenix won the game 87-77, the Snakes continued to fight hard and got within six with under a minute to go, but couldn’t quite close the deal.

The 23 turnovers for 32 South East Melbourne points the Taipans had weren’t quite ideal and were a major reason why the Phoenix took 15 extra field goals than the Snakes, but still there was plenty for coach Adam Forde to be encouraged by.

Tahjere McCall had a big role to play for the Snakes in all facets of the game and he worked himself into the ground in almost 36 minutes of court time. While he did have nine turnovers, his good far outweighed those with 16 points, nine assists and five rebounds.

Rookie Bul Kuol again impressed with 13 points on 3/7 shooting from beyond the arc while Majok Deng had another 13 points, four rebounds and four blocks, and Stephen Zimmerman 11 points and eight boards.

Jarrod Kenny played almost 29 minutes for nine points, four assists and three rebounds while going 3/3 from downtown with Nate Jawai contributing seven points and five rebounds, Jordan Ngatai five points, and Keanu Pinder two points, two steals and two blocks.

Taipans coach Adam Forde didn’t want to use the 25-day layoff or the players missing still as an excuse afterwards though.

"There was a little bit of pre-season about it given our break and we didn’t execute very well in the first half especially. We didn’t execute anything in the first half and credit to South East, they sped us up," Forde said. 

"I don’t mind turnovers where we are attacking the rim and we did a good job getting to the foul line, and we want to stay in touch as being one of the better teams with our attempts at the rim and free-throw rate. 

"We ticked those boxes, but we got a stop and then threw the ball into the front row. We got a stop and then passed it straight to the opposition. There was a little bit of us stopping playing and wanting to complain too.

"While there are things that we have progressed in, which is great, there were a couple of things we actually went backwards in. That's what we need to address knowing that we have a couple of training session on court to get ready for Illawarra on Saturday."

After a slow start for the Taipans with only a basket to Tahjere McCall opposed to eight early Phoenix points, they settled into the game thanks to triples from Majok Deng and Jarrod Kenny. 

Stephen Zimmerman and Tahjere McCall then made baskets before McCall, Nate Jawai and Marshall Nelson added points at the foul line to see the Taipans all square at 19-19 with the Phoenix at quarter-time.

South East Melbourne came out to score 12 of the opening 14 points of the second quarter but again Cairns steadied with Zimmerman scoring inside again and Deng knocking down another from long-range.

It was McCall and Zimmerman who combined for a basket each again to bring the margin to single figures. 

The Phoenix continued to knock down the threes and hit six of them for the second quarter to make Cairns pay for 13 turnovers, but a triple to Bul Kuol and a couple of free-throws to Deng at least kept the Snakes within 12 by half-time.

It was another slow start to the third quarter from Cairns with South East Melbourne scoring six of the first nine points, but the Snakes maintained touch with three-pointers from Kuol and McCall in response.

Keanu Pinder and Jawai then finished inside, and Kuol hit his third triple of the night and the Taipans only trailed by six, and still by only eight at three quarter-time.

The Taipans found themselves again down by 14 points with six minutes to go in the game, but they refused to go away and soon cut the deficit to nine with a three-pointer to McCall and free throws to Jawai.

Jordan Ngatai and Kenny hit threes soon after to bring it back to an eight-point game, and McCall brought it back to six at the free-throw line with just under a minute left. They couldn’t quite get any closer but deserve credit for continuing to fight to the death.

The Taipans will now return home and host the Illawarra Hawks at Cairns Convention Centre on Saturday evening in their first home game of 2022.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 8

CQUNIVERSITY CAIRNS TAIPANS 77 (McCall 16, Kuol 13, Deng 13) 

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 87 (Creek 26, Broekhoff 14, Munford 14)

BOX SCORE