Taipans show spirit out west

The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans threw the gauntlet right down to the Perth Wildcats at RAC Arena on Friday night, and while they didn’t come away with the win, they did show plenty of heart.

The Snakes were taking on a Wildcats team on their home floor in front 10,671 fans still playing for top spot at the end of the NBL season, but still the Taipans took it right up to them and went into quarter-time leading.

The Taipans were then still only five points down by half-time and even though the Wildcats blew the game wide open in the third term, the Snakes once more were able to show some fight and got back within 12 to again have a sniff.

While Perth went on to take out the eventual 100-79 victory there was plenty Cairns could still take from the performance into the final five games of this #NBL21 season.

The Taipans did fight out the game and you couldn’t question their endeavour including ending up with more offensive rebounds than the Wildcats for the game and also forcing Perth into 13 turnovers while having just the eight themselves.

Mirko Djeric knocked down 5/9 from three-point territory on his way to a team-high 15 points for the Taipans with Scott Machado finishing with 11 points and four assists.

Nate Jawai was on fire early down low and ended the night with 10 points and four rebounds with Mojave King contributing nine points and four boards, Tad Dufelmeier eight points, six assists and four steals, and Majok Deng seven points.

George Blagojevic also contributed six points, Fabijan Krslovic five, Venky Jois five and five rebounds, and Jordan Ngatai three.

Cairns coach Mike Kelly couldn’t fault his team's effort but ultimately they just couldn’t slow the Wildcats down the longer the game went.

"We scored with them in the first half and they continued to get good looks through the second half, and really rolled in that third period," Kelly said. 

"Our guys did keep fighting and I did feel like if you make a few shots and make some free-throws, and offensively we're in a good place. At the same time, we never really slowed them down defensively and that was a problem. 

"They shot a great percentage and scored at will. Our guys fought but we didn’t play great."

After falling down 10-5 early, the Taipans responded with Nate Jawai and Mojave King opening the game strongly on the road.

And even though the Wildcats again scored the next seven points, Cairns responded with three triples from Mirko Djeric, another from Fabijan Krslovic and two more buckets from Jawai to close the opening term and to lead 28-26 by quarter-time.

The game threatened to slip away from the Snakes during the second term but they did well to hang tough and a couple of big threes late in the half from Jordan Ngatai and King helped limited to lead of the home side to just the five points at the half-time interval.

Scott Machado and Majok Deng helped ensure that Cairns started off the third quarter well enough, but Perth then took over and over the space of seven minutes they opened up a 20-plus point lead.

Djeric did knocked down another three ball on the three quarter-time buzzer, but the margin was still 21 and the Snakes were able to turn that into a 9-0 with a hot start to the fourth quarter capped off with yet another triple from Djeric.

A three-point play from George Blagojevic and then three-pointer from Machado saw the margin back to just 12 with 7:30 remaining. That would be as close as Cairns could get, though, and soon the margin was back out to 20.

It got out to 26 before two steals and breakaway finishes on consecutive plays from Tad Dufelmeier, including a dunk on the second. The Taipans did turn that into an 8-0 run but the Wildcats still won by 21 in the finish.

The Taipans now remain on the road this weekend to take on the Illawarra Hawks in Wollongong on Sunday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 19

CQUNIVERSITY CAIRNS TAIPANS 79 (Djeric 15, Machado 11, Jawai 10) 

PERTH WILDCATS 100 (Cotton 19, Blanchfield 19, Mooney 16)

BOX SCORE https://nbl.com.au/games/1875330