Taipans unable to prevail in Armstrong’s return

In their third trip to Melbourne this season, the Kenfrost Homes Cairns Taipans fell to the South East Melbourne Phoenix 97-74 on Sunday afternoon.

Facing the Phoenix for the first time in NBL25, the Taipans welcomed back Taran Armstrong and Tanner Groves for their respective returns, as Deshon Taylor donned a Cairns jersey for his first time.

Starting perfect from range, the Phoenix fired off to an early lead with Sam Waardenburg continuing his own hot form to help keep Cairns in touch.

Hitting five of his seven shots in the opening quarter – including all three of his shots from deep – the forward traded shots with the hosts, who nearly hit more threes in the opening quarter than they did on Friday night.

After their lights out performance in the first quarter, the Phoenix struggled to find their feet once play resumed – going scoreless over the opening minutes as Cairns looked to close the gap.

Ending the first quarter with 13 points, Waardenburg took a quick break before returning to the court to continue his work, with Taran Armstrong and Jonah Antonio hitting their own shots from range.

Moving the ball well with only two of their 13 first-half buckets not coming off an assist, the Taipans kept pace with the Phoenix and stepped up their defence to only allow one three-pointer in the second quarter.

Pushing the pace once the second half started, Armstrong looked to continue Cairns’ work to close the gap but struggled to hit any shots – with both teams combining for seven missed shots to open the half.

With both teams unable to consistently tick the score over as the third quarter approached its end, Kyrin Galloway hit his shots to reduce the lead and force a timeout from a Phoenix to stop the flow.

Leaning on their bench unit to close out the quarter, Cairns slowly swung the momentum back in their favour with Jackson Makoi combining with Galloway on the offensive end to reduce the lead.

Moving the ball early once play resumed, the Taipans starters initially continued the momentum that their teammates had built, before South East Melbourne answered back with their own energy and slowly built out their lead.

Finding his way consistently to the bucket late in the game, Galloway was unable to keep up with the sharpshooting Phoenix as they steadily extended their lead.

In his debut, Taylor was determined not to give up as he repeatedly worked his way to the line to keep the score ticking over, however it wasn’t enough as South East Melbourne continued to shoot strongly to close out the game.

Despite missing the end of the game after coping an elbow from Jordan Hunter, Sam Waardenburg led the Taipans with 16 points, three rebounds and two assists before he was taken back to the locker room with concussion concerns. 

Galloway had 14 of his own points at an efficient 85%, with two rebounds, one assist and three blocks in an improved showing.

Returning to the court for his first game since Round 3, Taran Armstrong scored 11 points, seven boards, three assists and finished drawing four fouls whilst not committing one himself.

“We had a pretty good week, and so it’s kind of a disappointing performance by us,” said Taipans Head Coach Adam Forde.

“It was such a good week. The energy within the group was good, as was the execution and competition. I think we just had too many guys trying to do too much, when the reality is that we just need to play within a structure.

“We’ve just got to keep plugging away. Rob being unavailable obviously hurt, but we’re not in the business of making excuses – we had one game this week and we had all week to prepare for it.

"We’re limping into the FIBA break – worst case we’re 3-9, best bet we’re 4-8 – and then we come out the other end, hopefully fresh and fit, and we roll with what we’ve got.”

The Kenfrost Homes Cairns Taipans will now return home to rest up ahead of their Indigenous Round fixture. They'll host the New Zealand Breakers on Saturday 16 November at 4:30pm – tickets available HERE.