Phoenix Beat Returning Snakes in Gippsland

The South East Melbourne Phoenix took full toll of an understandably rusty Cairns Taipans to claim the 87-77 win on Tuesday night at the Gippsland Regional Indoor Stadium in Traralgon.

The Phoenix knew what it felt like to play your first game after a long break and they struggled a week and-a-half ago in Brisbane under those circumstances. But in their third game back they were getting things back together nicely even in the absence of Zhou Qi and Izayah Le'afa.

The Snakes were playing their first game since New Year's Eve and just their fifth game of the season. They kept fighting hard and never gave up the ghost, but ultimately with Scott Machado, Kouat Noi and Mirko Djeric sidelined, their turnovers proved a major factor in the final outcome.

The Phoenix ended up shooting 15 extra field goals than the Taipans for the night on the back of the Snakes coughing up 23 turnovers from which South East Melbourne was able to score 34 points.

It's back-to-back wins now for the Phoenix as they improve to 5-2 on the season with MVP fancy Mitch Creek a dominant force once again with 26 points, eight rebounds, seven steals and two assists on 11/17 shooting.

He had plenty of help too with Ryan Broekhoff going 3/6 from downtown for 14 points, eight rebounds and three steals while Cam Gliddon also made 4/6 from beyond the arc for 12 points.

Brandon Ashley is settling in well with 12 points and four rebounds with point guard Xavier Munford finishing with 14 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell likes that his team is finding their groove again, but acknowledges it's far from a finished product yet.

"I think we are starting improve upon in areas of the games but there are others we still have a long way to go in," Mitchell said. 

"There's still a bit of assimilation to go too obviously with Brandon just to get him a little bit cleaner and up to date on what we need, but he was great tonight. It's about the guys learning how to work with him. 

"I think there were times tonight we could have dropped the ball off to him but we didn’t, and it's just getting those habits and getting that familiarity."

Tahjere McCall had a big job to do all night for the Taipans as the major playmaker, scorer and defender. While he did have nine turnovers, he did a lot of good things for the Snakes too finishing with 16 points, nine assists and five rebounds.

Rookie Bul Kuol also had a good impact for the Taipans in their first game of 2022 with 13 points while Majok Deng had 13 points, four rebounds and four blocks, and Stephen Zimmerman 11 points and eight boards.

Taipans coach Adam Forde didn’t want to use the 25-day layoff or the players missing still as an excuse afterwards though.

"There was a little bit of pre-season about it given our break and we didn’t execute very well in the first half especially. We didn’t execute anything in the first half and credit to South East, they sped us up," Forde said. 

"I don’t mind turnovers where we are attacking the rim and we did a good job getting to the foul line, and we want to stay in touch as being one of the better teams with our attempts at the rim and free-throw rate. 

"We ticked those boxes, but we got a stop and then threw the ball into the front row. We got a stop and then passed it straight to the opposition. There was a little bit of us stopping playing and wanting to complain too.

"While there are things that we have progressed in, which is great, there were a couple of things we actually went backwards in. That's what we need to address knowing that we have a couple of training session on court to get ready for Illawarra on Saturday."

The Phoenix started strongly with an 8-2 streak to open the game but the Taipans steadied with three balls from Majok Deng and Jarrod Kenny. Both teams traded buckets the rest of the way in the opening team with scores locked at 19-19 by quarter-time.

South East Melbourne started the second period strongly too and pushed out to a double-digit advantage thanks to three-pointers from Kyle Adnam and Ryan Broekhoff.

The Snakes hit the next five points through Deng and Stephen Zimmerman, but turning the ball over continued to plague them and the Phoenix were taking full advantage.

The worst example was Creek stealing a defensive rebound off Zimmerman, finding a wide open Broekhoff and he knocked down one of his three triples for the quarter.

Cam Gliddon also made his old team pay with a couple of three balls and with the Phoenix scoring 22 points from the 13 Cairns turnovers and taking 11 extra field goals as a result, they led 49-37 at the half.

Like the first and second quarters, the Phoenix started the third term well to see their lead grow to 15 before threes for Cairns from Bul Kuol and Tahjere McCall.

Despite Kuol adding a third three of the night soon after, the Phoenix maintained their edge and that was helped with three-point bombs from Gliddon and Creek to ensure they remained leading 64-56 by three quarter-time.

Five quick points in the fourth term from Creek pushed the Phoenix lead back out double-figures before the Taipans gave up their 20th turnover, Brandon Ashley scored up the other end and it was a 14-point edge with six minutes to go.

Still Cairns refused to go away and even got back within six points on a couple of occasions, but no closer with South East Melbourne claiming the 10-point win.

The Phoenix now play the Bullets in Brisbane on Saturday but before that, the Taipans return to the Cairns Convention Centre for the first time in 2022 to take on the Illawarra Hawks earlier in the evening.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 8

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 87 (Creek 26, Broekhoff 14, Munford 14)

CAIRNS TAIPANS 77 (McCall 16, Kuol 13, Deng 13) 

BOX SCORE