Edwards stars as Snakes beat 36ers

Kyrin Galloway put his old team to the sword to start the fourth quarter with Rob Edwards scoring 31 points as the Cairns Taipans held out the Adelaide 36ers 101-97 in their home opener.

The Snakes were still without point guards Taran Armstrong (calf injury) and Jackson Makoi (suspended) but enjoyed being back in front of their fans at Cairns Convention Centre to score a first win of the NBL season.

After finishing last season strongly in Adelaide, Galloway has moved to Cairns in NBL25 and scored 10 points in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter as part of a 17-2 run.

Adelaide was back within three with a minute to play, but Rob Edwards sealed it for Cairns with a sixth three-pointer on his way to 31 points and four assists.

Galloway scored 10 of his 12 points to start the fourth quarter with Waardenburg delivering 21 points, 11 rebounds and four assists, Jonah Antonio 13 points, and Pedro Bradshaw 10.

Taipans coach Adam Forde credited his team for their response to last week's loss to Illawarra.

"I really want to give credit to the boys because they were able to bring it back in their favour and it was on the back of some great shooting, but some real good team defence," he said.

"That's what's important is that if the shot's falling that's great, but if it isn't then you have to win on the defensive end and for the majority of the game we did good."

It's back-to-back losses for Adelaide to start the season under new coach Mike Wells with DJ Vasiljevic delivering 24 points with 4/8 from downtown.

Excitement machine Montrezl Harrell had another 20 points and five rebounds with Kendric Davis ending up with 14 points and eight assists, and Jason Cadee nine points and four assists in game 395.

It's at the defensive end that Wells was thinking about afterwards.

"We had a lot of really good positive momentum in the first half, and unfortunately it ended on a little bit of a down note," he said.

"Then we never really got our rhythm back in the second half and give them credit for that.

"Offensively we did function and shot the ball at a good clip, and scored enough points to win the game, but our problem was defence and that's two games in-a-row where someone has shot over 50 per cent on us."

The Snakes got the perfect start in their home opener with six quick points to Sam Waardenburg and then two three-point bombs to Rob Edwards, but DJ Vasiljevic took charge for the Sixers.

He put up 12 points in the matter of minutes and that helped his team lead 32-28 in a high-scoring opening period.

The scoring didn’t let up from either side in the second quarter and Adelaide started on fire thanks to the energy from Montrezl Harrell. He scored 10 points to help the 36ers to a 12-point lead with some powerful dunks and even knocking down a three ball.

The Taipans responded, though, and then with the last seven points of the half including a fourth triple to Edwards and the home team was leading 58-54 on the back of 10/17 from deep, and despite the 29 points form Vasiljevic and Harrell for the visitors.

There were plenty of big hits throughout the third quarter including Edwards and Waardenburg adding another triple each for the Taipans.

But it was Jacob Rigoni grabbing his moment in the best patch of his career with Adelaide with two quick threes to tie scores up by three quarter-time.

It was then all the Taipans to start the final quarter with Kyrin Galloway knocking down two three-pointers on his way to 10 points in the first two minutes.

The Snakes finished up with a stunning 17-2 run to start the last term on the way to the eventual four-point victory in front of the Orange Army.

The 36ers now have their first home game of the season on Thursday night against the South East Melbourne Phoenix. The Snakes remain at home to host the Tasmania JackJumpers on Friday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

CAIRNS TAIPANS 101 (Edwards 31, Waardenburg 21, Antonio 13)

ADELAIDE 36ERS 97 (Vasiljevic 24, Harrell 20, Davis 14)

BOX SCORE