Road Taipans Dig Deep Again to Beat Bullets

Sunday, November 20, 2022

A stunning 14-0 run in less than two minutes set the Cairns Taipans alight before they held out the Brisbane Bullets to continue their impressive road form, winning 90-82 on Saturday night.

Nissan Arena played host to the first Sunshine Stoush of #NBL23 with the Bullets and Taipans both playing their first game since the FIBA break, and both Queensland rivals brought winning form with them.

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It was a tight battle for much of the evening as well and the Bullets were up five midway through the third quarter on the back of a couple of triples from Tanner Krebs.

However, the Snakes then blew the game open in the next couple of minutes leading into three quarter-time by scoring 14 straight points. That saw them turn a five-point deficit into a nine-point lead, which they converted into the eight-point win.

The victory improves the Taipans to a 6-3 record on the season while being 5-1 now on the road with the Bullets seeing their three-game winning run ended to now be 3-6.

The frontcourt Cairns trio of DJ Hogg, Keanu Pinder and Sam Waardenburg were once again brilliant, with Hogg delivering 20 points, eight rebounds, four assists, three blocks and two steals.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Who can guard DJ Hogg? ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/j42IAhsT1D">pic.twitter.com/j42IAhsT1D</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1593920116026093568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Pinder put up 25 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals, and Waardenburg 14 points and three rebounds.

Shannon Scott also dished out 10 assists to make up for a tough 1/12 shooting night with Bul Kuol contributing 12 points on 4/5 three-point shooting and Majok Deng eight points and five rebounds.

Tahjere McCall made his return from injury with five points, four rebounds and three steals in 22 minutes before fouling out.

Cairns coach Adam Forde was happy that despite his team struggling in some areas offensively, they still found a way to get to the foul line 31 times and to put up 90 points to win.

"It wasn’t the cleanest game for us offensively," Forde said.

"I mean there's not too many times where we're going to have Bul and Tahj foul out, Shannon go 1/12 from the field, DJ not hitting a single three and still be able to score 90 points. So it's nice to still get that win but yeah, it was just a grindy and gritty game.

"They went on a run, we went on a run and the cool thing was I only used a timeout once to sort of bail us out of a bad situation just because it looked stagnant. But for the most part the boys did a good job of weathering the storm. They went on a 10-0 run, we answered it with a 14-0 run ourselves. It was fun."

DJ Mitchell shot 5/8 from the field, 3/5 from deep and 8/8 from the foul line for the Bullets to top-score with 21 points and eight rebounds with Tyler Johnson contributing 17 points, nine boards and four assists.

Jason Cadee added 11 points and three assists, Tanner Krebs nine points, and Aron Baynes eight points and 11 rebounds.

Brisbane coach James Duncan couldn’t fault his team's effort but knows they need to execute better.

"Those eight turnovers in the first quarter didn’t help and gives our opponent confidence to get themselves rolling with some easy baskets," Duncan said.

"We were able to fight back a number of times, even take the lead a few times, but we couldn’t sustain that. It was just breakdowns, giving up back cut layups, the free-throw situation with a tip-in by them.

"Those continuous breakdowns when we had momentum, they allowed them to grab the momentum back and then we had to start ourselves up again.

"Effort wise, I can't really say anything, the effort by the boys was very good, but our execution of the game plan in terms of how we're going to attack them and defend them, I would say it was a C-. We've got to improve."

Brisbane got the perfect start with Aron Baynes hitting from deep, but up the other end DJ Hogg hit three quick buckets with the Taipans taking advantage of the Bullets turnovers.

Jason Cadee hit a three to steady things and later in the first term Baynes landed another from downtown, but in between the Taipans took over with strong work going to the basket from Sam Waardenburg and Keanu Pinder.

Pinder hit their only three-point mark in 10 attempts for the quarter which turned into an 18-11 lead, but the Bullets finished with a 5-2 run to be only down four despite the eight opening quarter turnovers.

The Bullets caught fire to open the second period starting with a triple from DJ Mitchell and then six points from Cadee starting with a three-point make and then a three-point play after taking it to the rack.

That suddenly had Brisbane in front 25-20 but Cairns answered with the next seven points starting with a long-range make from Bul Kuol. Kuol hit another shortly after to put the Taipans back in front, and when he knocked down a third of the quarter it gave the Snakes the 40-36 half-time edge.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">AIR SOBEY ??<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/UtfQwO93yQ">pic.twitter.com/UtfQwO93yQ</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1593916264174395392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Neither team lit it up shooting combining for 9/37 from beyond the arc, but the 27 rebounds to 18 kept Brisbane close while the 13 points for the Taipans from Hogg along with causing nine Bullets turnovers were instrumental in their lead.

Five quick points from Nathan Sobey gave the Bullets a good start to the second half, but the Taipans responded with the next six points from Waardenburg on the back of picture perfect passing from Shannon Scott.

Then just after Brisbane went up five following consecutive triples from Tanner Krebs, Cairns made the decisive run of the game by hitting the next 14 points leading into three quarter-time.

That included three-pointers from Ben Ayre and Kuol, and it saw the Snakes head into the fourth quarter on top 65-57.

Brisbane started the fourth term well starting with a Tyler Johnson three ball. Buckets to Mitchell and Sobey then made it a three-point game, but the Taipans continued to have all the answers.

An offensive rebound and putback on a free-throw to Tahjere McCall helped the Snakes back out to a nine-point edge before Brisbane fired back with back-to-back threes from Mitchell.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Keanu Pinder says... NO ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/jRZqLs0Qi0">pic.twitter.com/jRZqLs0Qi0</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1593902455326011392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

That made it a one-point game with just under four minutes on the clock, but once more, Pinder responded with the next five points for Cairns. Hogg then converted a three-point play and the Snakes went on to win by eight.

The Taipans now return home to host the New Zealand Breakers on Friday night while the Bullets don't play again until next Sunday when they take on the Breakers at well at Spark Arena.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 7

BRISBANE BULLETS 82 (Mitchell 21, Johnson 17, Cadee 11)

CAIRNS TAIPANS 90 (Pinder 25, Hogg 20, Waardenburg 14)

BOX SCORE