Taipans down Phoenix after tough week in Cairns

The Cairns Taipans answered every challenge from the South East Melbourne Phoenix at home on Friday night to join them on an 8-9 record this NBL season with the 94-75 victory.

Cairns put a challenging week and-a-half behind them for the local community firstly with Tropical Cyclone Jasper and then the flooding since with a strong crowd of 3651 at Cairns Convention Centre.

The Taipans put up 30 points in the first quarter to open up a double-digit advantage, but the Phoenix continued to fight back despite the absence of captain Mitch Creek with a knee injury.

Alan Williams (29 points, eight rebounds) and Reuben Te Rangi (14 points) combined for 16 of their team's 28 points in the second quarter before former Taipan Ben Ayre hit two late triples to put the visitors in front.

However, every time South East Melbourne had some momentum the Taipans were able to answer. Cairns did go on an 11-0 run to start the second half and blew the game open for good either side of three quarter-time.

The Snakes scored the last five points of the third period and that turned into a 13-0 run when Bobi Klintman (eight points, five rebounds) threw down a dunk to start the fourth quarter. It was followed by three-pointers to Lat Mayen (nine points) and Bul Kuol (15 points, four rebounds, two blocks).

Williams kept doing his best to keep the Phoenix in touch, but they couldn’t close the deficit with the home team winning by 19 to join South East Melbourne on 8-9 records.

Cairns did well at the foul line going 20-of-22 opposed to 7-of-11 to the Phoenix while they forced South East Melbourne into 18 turnovers from which they scored 20 points.

Import guard Patrick Miller starred with 17 points, nine assists and seven rebounds while Kiwi centre Sam Waardenburg top-scored with 20 points. Tahjere McCall also had eight points, eight rebounds, seven assists and four steals.

Taipans coach Adam Forde was glad his team could give the Cairns community something to cheer about.

"The fans tonight were fantastic and I know it's been a week for us, and a week for the community," he said.

"The fan base was fantastic so it was great to get this win for them and there's a lot where people don't have much to cheer about, but hopefully we gave them at least a little bit of comfort for about two hours.

The Phoenix didn’t get enough contributors with Williams and Te Rangi combining for 43 of their 75 points, but new import Abdel Nader improved in his second outing with 12 points despite 4-of-16 shooting.

"There was definitely some positives there with the way we stuck together and the way the guys continued to play," said Phoenix coach Mike Kelly.

"Cairns is a good team and they played well, we threw some different things at them defensively and they adjusted, and made some shots. We took our shot and it wasn’t good enough."

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 12

CAIRNS TAIPANS 94 (Waardenburg 20, Miller 17, Kuol 15)

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 75 (Williams 29, Te Rangi 14, Nader 12)

BOX SCORE