Taipans start strong, hold on to beat Bullets

The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans turned on a scintillating start against the Brisbane Bullets at Cairns Convention Centre on Thursday night, and then were able to hold on for a nail-biting 73-69 victory.

The Snakes returned to their home floor for the Sunshine Stoush after a couple of tough road losses in Round 12 to the Illawarra Hawks and Adelaide 36ers, but from the outset they were a motivated unit in front of the Orange Army.

The Taipans came out to score the opening eight points of the contest, were leading 14-4 and then still up 32-19 going into the quarter-time break.

The lead was as much as 16 points at one point for the home team, but things again dried up offensively and the Bullets were able to slowly work their way back into the contest.

Then suddenly it was a two-point ball game with under a minute remaining before Scott Machado hit the biggest shot of the night. Needing to put up the three to beat the shot clock, Machado drained it with 25 seconds to go to put the Snakes back up five which proved a match-winning gap.

Machado appeared to be moving much better and was more assured with the ball in hand to finish with 17 points and seven assists for the Snakes.

Bul Kuol went 4/6 from downtown for 14 points while Tahjere McCall had 12 points and five assists, Stephen Zimmerman nine points and 13 rebounds, and Mirko Djeric nine points on 3/6 from deep.

Majok Deng had eight points and five rebounds on just five shots for Cairns while Keanu Pinder was a livewire once again with four points and 10 rebounds in his 21 and-a-half minutes.

Taipans coach Adam Forde was a relieved man post-match to come away with the win.

"I feel like after the week we've had and trying to address our demons, and that's the secret right, let's try and score all our points in the first quarter and then try to hold on for dear life," Forde said.

"We struggled to tick that scoreboard over in the third and the fourth, but we're trying to hang our hat on right now is defensively and everything else is a learning curve. 

"If we can hold it down defensively which for the most part we've done a considerable job of for the whole season, the offence will slowly but surely come."

While Lamar Patterson finished with 12 points and Robert Franks 10 for Brisbane, they were scoreless in the first quarter and had a combined six points to half-time.

Nathan Sobey returned but was only allowed to play 13 minutes for 11 points while Jason Cadee top-scored with 15 to go with eight dimes.

The heat was on for the Taipans to come out strongly after their two rough losses in Round 12 after good starts to be on a four-game losing slide, and they produced exactly that in front of the Orange Army.

Stephen Zimmerman scored first down low and the Taipans would hold Brisbane scoreless for more than four minutes to open the game. Majok Deng made four free-throws and Scott Machado hit a basket for the 8-0 lead before Chuanxing Liu opened Brisbane's account.

But triples from Machado and Tahjere McCall quickly put Cairns out to a 14-4 edge. 

The returning Nathan Sobey and Jason Cadee tried to shoot the Bullets back into the game with threes, but Zimmerman was having his way down low, Machado was feeling good and by shooting 12/18 for the term, the Snakes went into quarter-time up 32-19. 

Neither team found the going easy with just the two points combined in the opening four minutes of the second period, but then the Snakes stretched the lead. It got out to 15 after Bul Kuol's second three-point make. 

Patterson finally scored a couple of buckets while Sobey converted a three-point play and Cadee made his third triple of the half, but still it was Cairns up 51-41 at the break.

It was a horror opening to the second half from Cairns and Brisbane put up the first five points to get back within five. That would be as close as they got, though, and despite the Taipans only scoring nine points for the quarter, a late Kuol three helped them maintain the seven-point edge.

The Bullets weren't going away, though, and despite a three ball from Mirko Djeric, the visitors kept coming and were just down four with six minutes left.

A Franks three-pointer soon after brought the Bullets back within two and the Taipans were struggling to execute anything offensively. But suddenly with the shot clock expiring, Machado drained a critical three to extend the lead back to five with 25 seconds remaining.

The Snakes were able to hold on from there to snap their four-game losing streak but to extend Brisbane's to three.

The Taipans are back at Cairns Convention Centre on Sunday against the ladder-leading Melbourne United.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 13

CQUNIVERSITY CAIRNS TAIPANS 73 (Machado 17, Kuol 14, McCall 12)

BRISBANE BULLETS 69 (Cadee 15, Patterson 12, Sobey 11) 

BOX SCORE https://nbl.com.au/games/2053818