Smith hits seven threes as Bullets beat Taipans

The Brisbane Bullets took their NBL24 pre-season road show to Bundaberg on Saturday evening and unleashed Chris Smith who drained seven three-pointers in a 96-65 victory against the Cairns Taipans.

Smith would drainseven three-pointers in a 96-65 victory against the Cairns Taipans. The Bullets had already had a pre-season hit out against real opposition two weeks ago, beating California Baptist University by 27 points, and then backed up against a shorthanded Snakes outfit on Saturday at Bundaberg Multiplex Sports Centre.

Brisbane opened the game on fire, scoring the opening seven points, which was topped off with new import Chris Smith hitting his first of seven three-pointers for the evening.

He soon added a second to give the Bullets the 10-2 lead, after Sam Mennenga opened the scoring for the Taipans.

The Snakes did battle hard, including outscoring the Bullets 25 points to 22 in the second quarter to cut the Brisbane lead to 42-36 at half-time, but eventually the shorthanded nature of their squad took its toll.

There were positives for sure for Adam Forde's men, but ultimately they were without Taran Armstrong, Patrick Miller, Tahjere McCall, Jonah Antonio and Bul Kuol, and the Bullets were far closer to full strength and took charge in the second half.

Brisbane was missing NBL1 North Grand Final MVP Nathan Sobey, but the rest of the squad for new head coach Justin Schueller was available. With Smith unstoppable with an eye-opening shooting performance, they outscored the Taipans 54 points to 29 in the second half, to win by 31.

The star of the evening was Chris Smith for the Bullets and he only played 18 and-a-half minutes. The Utah State alum arrives as a noted scorer and showed an exciting glimpse of that, with 25 points on the back of hitting 7/8 from three-point range.

Point guard Shannon Scott showed what an astute signing he will be too after his terrific first NBL season at the Taipans, as he led Brisbane with 16 points and four assists in 23 minutes.

Fresh off leading the scoring in the NBL1 North at the Mackay Meteors, Isaac White also produced 12 points, 11 assists and five rebounds for the Bullets with plenty more good signs, with nine points from Josh Bannan, and seven points, seven boards and two steals from Aron Baynes.

Tyrell Harrison also had seven points, four rebounds and a block, new signing Mitch Norton six points, six rebounds and three assists, NBL1 South Best Defensive Player Sam McDaniel five points, five rebounds and two assists, and DJ Mitchell five points and five boards.

The Taipans might have been missing half their team, but the signs were exciting from budding Kiwi star Sam Mennenga, who delivered 15 points and four rebounds on 6/11 shooting including a couple of three-pointers in his 27 minutes.

Fellow New Zealand big man Sam Waardenburg also finished with eight points and two rebounds with Akoldah Gak delivering 11 points, eight boards and three assists.

Alex Mudronja is coming off a strong NBL1 North season at the Southern Districts Spartans and had nine points, five assists and three rebounds for Cairns. Lat Mayen added eight points, six rebounds and three assists after his standout NBL1 South season with the Bendigo Braves.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL PRE-SEASON GAME

BRISBANE BULLETS 96 (Smith 25, Scott 16, White 12)
CAIRNS TAIPANS 65 (Mennenga 15, Gak 11, Mudronja 9) 

BOX SCORE