Taipans take down Wildcats in double overtime

The Kenfrost Homes Cairns Taipans have gone undefeated across Round 18, taking down the Perth Wildcats 116-125 in double overtime on Saturday night to put up their highest total ever at RAC Arena.

After suiting up on Thursday night but not seeing any action, Taran Armstrong remained in Cairns with back soreness with Alex Higgins-Titsha and Kody Stattmann making the trip in his place. On the opposing bench, the Wildcats were also missing two of their own starters, with Dylan Windler and Tai Webster both missing the battle on their home court.

Opening with Tanner Groves finding the basket with an easy layup, the Taipans were able to quickly tick the score over – repeating their success against the Hawks by putting up seven points in under two minutes.

Only putting up two points in the same time frame – both found at the free throw line – the Wildcats looked to flip the script, with the hosts catching up with Cairns despite Bryce Cotton only hitting 25% of his shots in the opening minutes.

As both sides turned to their bench, Rob Edwards found his rhythm to spark a 10-2 run as he drained back-to-back triples to hand the lead back to the Taipans – capitalising on Cotton only making one of his eight attempts.

Reaching 10 points by the end of the opening term, Edwards ensured that Cairns were able to hold onto a narrow four-point lead despite their hosts outrebounding them 14-9.

Returning to action by extending the margin out to double digits, the Taipans were able to drain a series of buckets before Cotton finally found his tempo – draining Perth’s first triple nearly 12 minutes into the contest.

Exploding for 12 points across the second term, the Wildcat looked set to spark a charge for his side as the main break approached, however Tanner Groves and Kyle Adnam both provided backup for Edwards to maintain a nine-point lead as the trio combined for 36 of their 56 points.

Holding Perth to only three assists across the first half – similar to their performance on Thursday night – the Wildcats chose to focus on the trio of Keanu Pinder, Ben Henshall and Cotton, who were able to return to action with a 19-6 run.

Turning the nine-point deficit into a nine-point lead, Perth swung the game back in their favour as their staring trio combined for 65 of their 82 points.

Looking to return serve, Sam Waardenburg got to work on the inside as the forward looked set for a triple double – reaching 9 points, five boards and eight assists at the main break – however contact directly to his eye force him to sit out the remainder of the third term.

Returning to the court looking to respond after a 35-17 third quarter, Cairns were able to orchestrate a 5-14 run to even the contest before Pinder and Cotton replied to rebuild the margin to eight points.

Steadily reducing the margin to a single point across the final minutes, the Taipans closed in on Perth, trading bucket for bucket as the final seconds approached.

With neither side were able to stretch more than bucket ahead, the Wildcats looked set to sneak away with a two-point win before a Pedro Bradshaw bucket sent the matchup to overtime.

Putting on a scoring clinic, Edwards helped build a quick lead – not allowing Perth to have any glimpse of a win – slowly building the margin out to six points.

However, Cotton quickly replied, draining back-to-back triples to even the matchup, with both sides missing free throws to keep the game tied as the first period of overtime came to a close.

Opening the second term of free basketball, the Wildcats were unable to match Cairns, who opened with a 7-0 run to force Perth into calling a quick timeout.

Jacking up three after three, Perth tried to close the gap, however after missing their final four attempts from range they were unable to catch up by the final buzzer.

Only being outscored by Bryce Cotton who took an extra 18 attempts to score eight more points, Rob Edwards led the Taipans with 30 points, six boards, an assist and a block.

Falling shy of a triple-double, Sam Waardenburg put up 24 points, nine boards, nine assists, two steals and two blocks. Fellow forward Pedro Bradshaw was able to reach a double-double himself with 12 points, 13 rebounds, four assists and a steal, and was one of seven Taipans to reach double digits.

“This is what I love about the group – we didn’t deserve the 15-game losing streak, and the boys have been so resilient throughout the whole season, and it has been character building,” explained Taipans Head Coach Adam Forde.

“And even in that stretch where Waardenburg fouls out, and Tanner has to come out because he has got blood coming out of his face, and it fell on AK and KG who relatively sat out the entire fourth. KG made some massive free throws and AK was the one who secured that massive rebound at the end, so it was again by committee as a collective group, and I'm happy that the boys are rewarding themselves.

“This was gritty, and this is what we’ve been trying to harp on all season from the beginning. This is three games in a row where we’ve won the rebound count, and that was something that we really wanted to target as a KPI at the start of the season, so it’s cool that the boys are still caring about those KPIs now."

The Kenfrost Homes Cairns Taipans will now return home before facing another gruelling road trip for their Round 19 clash with the New Zealand Breakers. They’ll then return home for their final home game of the season, when they face the Brisbane Bullets on Thursday 6 February – tickets are available HERE!