Taipans toppled on the buzzer by Breakers

The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans shook off a slow start to deliver a strong second half but then suffer a shock loss on the buzzer to the New Zealand Breakers at the NBL Cup in Melbourne on Wednesday.

Coming off a disappointing loss to the Adelaide 36ers back on Saturday after a strong win against the Sydney Kings, the Taipans didn’t get the start against the Breakers they were hoping to open the final week at the NBL Cup at John Cain Arena.

By early in the second half the Taipans found themselves down by 19 points but then produced a significantly improved third quarter by being more aggressive attacking the basket and putting in an improved defensive showing.

That continued in the fourth quarter with Scott Machado draining a couple of huge threes and the Snakes closed the gap gradually before a remarkable finish to the contest.

Machado tied scores up with a tough floater in the paint with 40 seconds left before Rasmus Bach responded with a triple to give New Zealand the lead 73-70 with 21.7 seconds on the clock.

Mirko Djeric responded with a massive three-point bomb from the Menulog logo metres out beyond the arc and it was 73-73 with 6.7 seconds remaining. 

The Taipans forced Tai Webster into a tough attempt at the rack and forced a miss, but New Zealand got the offensive rebound through captain Tom Abercrombie. 

And the Taipans have seen this before with Abercrombie a Grand Final MVP against Cairns and he was able to get off a prayer of a three ball which was all net with the clock expiring and New Zealand won the game 76-73.

It will be a tough pill to swallow for the Taipans with Cam Oliver finishing with 19 points and seven rebounds.

Scott Machado ended up with 14 points, five rebounds and four assists with Mojave King continuing his momentum from a strong showing against Adelaide with another 12 points, five rebounds and two assists while playing 20 minutes.

Jordan Ngatai scored nine points for Cairns with Mirko Djeric contributing eight points and four rebounds, Fabijan Krslovic four points and two blocks, Jarrod Kenny three points, Nate Jawai two points and Kouat Noi two points, four rebounds and two steals.

Taipans coach Mike Kelly didn’t like the way his team started in reaction to the zone defence of the Breakers but saw some marked improvement once they came to terms with it.

"The first thing I think was that we came out against a zone and we played like we hadn’t seen a zone before so it was a good tactic to slow us down, and we had a lot of indecision," Kelly said.

"Instead of attacking we went into hatch the ball mode and we didn’t move the ball well early. We settled for some tough shots and definitely it took us a while to just find our bearings offensively. That was not a good way to start the game.

"We understood we were just playing bad basketball and reacting with poor decisions against defence that was really just a soft two-three zone. So when the guys started to be assertive and aggressive we got some better looks, and were taking better shots.

"Then defensively especially in that second half the guys got tough and they made the Breakers try to score through their chest more often and we got some stops."

It took more than a minute for either team to score but Cairns opened the scoring firstly through Cam Oliver and then with a buzzer-beating three from Scott Machado.

However, New Zealand then scored the next 13 points of the contest and despite a couple of good buckets from Fabijan Krslovic including a dunk down the lane, the Breakers finished the first term on another 7-0 to lead 24-11 with the Snakes shooting just 5/18 from the floor.

Cairns tried to fire back with six quick points to start the second quarter but they couldn’t stop New Zealand up the other end and it was soon a double-figure gap.

Oliver tried to spark the Snakes with a personal run of five consecutive points before Jordan Ngatai did the same just before half-time against his former team. 

But the Breakers still went into half-time leading 46-32 with the Taipans struggling to shoot just 31 per cent from the floor and 15 per cent from beyond the arc.

Kouat Noi scored his first points of the game to open the second half but again the Breakers had the answers with the next seven points to lead by a game high 19. But the Snakes then played their best patch of basketball for the game the rest of the third quarter.

Mojave King was the spark for it as well starting by hitting a three ball before being aggressive and making a bucket, and getting to the line a couple of times. 

The Next Star had nine points in the quarter and with Mirko Djeric and Nate Jawai opening their accounts too, the Snakes were back within eight by three quarter-time with some momentum.

Machado opened up the fourth quarter with a three for Cairns to make it a six-point game and that was back to two soon after when Djeric also nailed a three ball. Machado knocked down another massive triple with just over a minute remaining to make it a one-point ball game too.

That set the stage for the frantic finish and the Taipans went ever so close to forcing the overtime before the Tom Abercrombie offensive rebound and buzzer-beater.

The Taipans now close their time at the NBL Cup on Friday against Ryan Broekhoff and the South East Melbourne Phoenix.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 9
NBL CUP WEEK 4

CQUNIVERSITY CAIRNS TAIPANS 73 (Oliver 19, Machado 14, King 12)

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 76 (Abercrombie 20, T Webster 16, Iverson 15) 

POINTS AWARDED – New Zealand Breakers 5, Cairns Taipans 2

BOX SCORE