Taipans Hold Off Breakers for Win in Cairns

Scott Machado and Nate Jawai sent a reminder they can still be driving forces for the Cairns Taipans with the veteran duo instrumental in Sunday's 93-90 victory over the New Zealand Breakers.

Both teams were coming off tough losses also in Cairns earlier in the round so were hungry for a bounce back victory, and while it was an empty Cairns Convention Centre, it didn’t lack for entertainment and a thrilling finish.

The teams did trade the advantage right throughout the evening in Far North Queensland but ultimately a dominant first quarter from Jawai, big last term from Machado and starring performances from emerging stars Bul Kuol and Kouat Noi got the Snakes over the line.

It was a good win for Cairns minus Tahjere McCall, Stephen Zimmerman and Mirko Djeric and means they've now won two of the last three. While for New Zealand, they weren’t quite able to make up for losing from the unlosable position to Brisbane on Thursday with another narrow defeat.

Kuol took 11 three-point attempts on Friday night for Cairns but made his only attempt this time around but was aggressive taking the ball to the rack and got to the line 12 times as a result on his way to 17 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Noi also had his best game of the season with 19 points and six rebounds on 7/9 shooting while Jawai had to play a bigger role when Keanu Pinder fouled out in 10 minutes. Jawai had nine opening quarter points on his way to 16 for the game and five rebounds.

Machado had a purple patch in the fourth quarter as well and ended the game with 15 points, seven assists and five rebounds with Majok Deng contributing 11 points and six boards. 

Cairns coach Adam Forde was glad with the players who stepped up in the challenging circumstances.

"There was a lot of mistakes and errors in that game, and it was two teams struggling with injuries and fatigue, and it was just a grind," Forde said. 

"It was a real gritty performance and hats off to New Zealand for having their home game here. It was obviously good to get a win because wins are far and few between so we're real happy from that point of things. 

"The guys stepped up kind of had to because we have a lot of guys on the sidelines and then Keanu got himself into foul trouble early. The opportunities were there and I love the fact that the boys felt comfortable enough in their home gym to go out there and do what was needed to be done."

Yanni Wetzell produced another 21 points and eight rebounds for the Breakers with Ousmane Dieng producing his season high of 20 points to go with four rebounds.

Hugo Besson hit a couple more threes on his way to 16 points and six assists with Peyton Siva contributing 13 points and three assists while only playing 20 minutes with foul trouble. Tom Abercrombie also had nine points, four rebounds and three assists.

Breakers coach Dan Shamir took positives again from the performance of his team, but ultimately their defence wasn’t quite good enough.

"We came into this game after a very tough loss that was devastating, and made the effort and executed pretty well. We played against a lot of switching defence today that kind of gets you a little bit stagnant, but we did the move the ball and did get a lot of good looks," Shamir said. 

"In terms of preparation, recovery and mentally from a very tough loss three days ago, that was good. We struggled defensively and it's in almost every game, and today we couldn’t keep Taipans off the free-throw line and they shot 36 shots. 

"On the positive part, with the time that we have left I think that a lot of players are not playing so bad, and we're playing also together as a team. A lot of players are making steps and we strongly invested in the development and taking opportunities, and making the use of time of the games that are left with every player. We'll keep on doing that."

Keanu Pinder again started the game on fire with the first four points including a dunk for the Taipans, but it was Breakers captain Tom Abercrombie matching him up the other end with the seven points for his team.

Yanni Wetzell and Hugo Besson then combined to give New Zealand the 13-10 advantage before the introduction of Nate Jawai turned the tide. While Pinder had been lively, he also had four turnovers but Jawai was simply too big, powerful and aggressive down low.

He produced his best quarter of the season for nine points on 3/3 shooting in 4:30 and as a result the Taipans led 24-17 by quarter-time.

New Zealand turned things back in their favour to open the second period starting with a triple from Next Star Ousmane Dieng. The Breakers couldn’t quite get in front, though with the Taipans answering their challenges until just before half-time.

Three-point makes to Besson and Will McDowell-White saw New Zealand able to claim the 45-43 half-time advantage.

Cairns were the ones to start the second half with a bang with the opening six points to regain the advantage. It was Noi who was feeling it with seven quick points.

Noi ended up scoring 11 points in the third quarter alone and then despite Peyton Siva scoring nine points to close the period for New Zealand, a Jarrod Kenny make from three saw Cairns up 71-68 by three quarter-time.

A big three from Dieng for New Zealand gave him his highest score of the season and levelled scores but the Snakes soon worked their way back on top. It was Machado who was the inspiration behind it. He scored eight straight points including two threes to put Cairns up 81-74 with six minutes to go.

New Zealand kept hanging around and just as Machado hit another big bucket to kept the Taipans up six, Besson drilled a huge three to bring it back to three with two minutes remaining.

Things stayed tight and when Jawai knocked down two more free throws, Cairns led by four with 23 seconds to go. The Breakers were able to score in one second after the timeout with the McDowell-White pass for a Dieng layup leading to the Taipans calling for time.

Things were still dramatic at the finish and ultimately Dieng sent up a prayer for New Zealand down three that went close, but didn’t quite fall and the Snakes held on to win by three.

The Taipans remain in Cairns to host the South East Melbourne Phoenix again on Saturday before these two teams do battle once more next Monday albeit in Hobart.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 17

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 90 (Wetzell 21, Dieng 20, Besson 16)

CAIRNS TAIPANS 93 (Noi 19, Kuol 17, Jawai 16) 

BOX SCORE