Taipans Catch Fire to Stay Unbeaten Minus Pinder

Monday, January 9, 2023

The Cairns Taipans remain undefeated in the absence of superstar Keanu Pinder and stayed in the #NBL23 top two hunt after dominating the South East Melbourne Phoenix at home for much of the last three quarters to win 94-85.

The Cairns Taipans remain undefeated in the absence of superstar Keanu Pinder and stayed in the #NBL23 top two hunt after dominating the South East Melbourne Phoenix at home for much of the last three quarters to win 94-85.

The Snakes were playing a fourth consecutive game without Pinder with an ankle injury and despite their own personnel issues, the Phoenix arrived at Cairns Convention Centre on Sunday determined to end a three-game losing slide.

South East Melbourne was still missing Gary Browne, Trey Kell III and Zhou Qi, but still had Mitch Creek, Alan Williams and Kyle Adnam. That trio was instrumental in the Phoenix putting up 35 first quarter points and then leading 37-24 to start the second.

It was a blistering opening, but the Taipans weren’t deterred with coach Adam Forde back at the helm. They continued to push the pace, to shoot and they caught fire in blistering fashion to close the first half.

The Taipans outscored the Phoenix 30-12 the rest of the half to go from 13 down to eight up at the break. They maintained control through much of the second half including another 19 points to 13 in the third quarter on the way to the eventual nine-point win.

The victory is a fourth in-a-row for the Taipans all coming without Pinder as they improve to 14-7 on the season just behind the second placed New Zealand Breakers (13-6). The Phoenix have now lost four straight to be clinging to sixth position at 12-11.

Tahjere McCall was in the middle of everything again for the Snakes for 24 points, five rebounds and four assists on 7/8 shooting from the floor and 8/8 at the stripe.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Hogg ain't ?????? ?? ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live and free on 10 Peach and 10play | live on ESPN2 via Kayo Sports + Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/hruBzPjGVo">pic.twitter.com/hruBzPjGVo</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1611979904572338176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Shannon Scott was a strong contributor also with 19 points, seven assists and six rebounds with DJ Hogg scoring 16 points along with seven assists and five rebounds while landing 4/7 from three-point territory.

Taipans coach Adam Forde is relieved to have got through this challenging stretch with four wins and proud of the efforts of his players.

"That's four games in eight days and to do it without Keanu, and having everybody step up on different occasions in different moments during this whole stretch was really important," Forde said.

"It was great to see the guys get the result that they deserve. It wasn’t without its challenges and we found ourselves down again and the offence got a little bit stagnant on the third when we were getting stops.

"We were just rushing it a little bit on the offensive end and playing a little bit passive in the fourth, but then to reflect on the fact that this was probably our best shooting performance in a while.

"We do so on the back of this eight day road trip really given we were both at home on the road during it. I'm looking forward to a day off."

Mitch Creek top-scored again for South East Melbourne with 25 points to go with seven rebounds and three assists but he was dearly missed down the stretch after suffering an eye injury.

Ryan Broekhoff finished with 17 points, three rebounds and three assists, Alan Williams 16 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, and Kyle Adnam 14 points and three assists.

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell couldn’t fault his team's effort for the most part considering who they were missing, their recent schedule and then losing Creek late.

"It was a little more than just the shots not dropping, I thought defensively we were too error ridden in that second quarter," Mitchell said.

"Our offence suffered because of the defence and then the defence suffered from the offence, it was a little vicious circle we got ourselves in. It didn’t really seem to matter who we threw out there, we were struggling to navigate that second quarter.

"We regrouped at half-time which was good but obviously we got ourselves down by a fair margin. I thought the guys fought hard, though, and it's been a really difficult couple of weeks for this team.

"Then obviously losing Mitch was tough, but it was really good in his absence to see those guys step up to make a contest of it and give ourselves the best opportunity to win."

Kyle Adnam and Mitch Creek came out and knocked down early threes for South East Melbourne and when Alan Wiliams went to work inside as well, the visitors were soon up 16-11.

Tahjere McCall briefly steadied things for Cairns with three straight buckets, and despite triples for the home team from DJ Hogg and Majok Deng, it was all the Phoenix who were just unstoppable in the opening period.

South East Melbourne went on a 9-0 streak late in the period including a three ball from Grant Anticevich to see them take a 35-24 edge into quarter-time.

Williams then gave South East Melbourne the first points of the second quarter to put them up 37-24, but the game underwent a dramatic transformation there with the Taipans catching fire to the delight of the Orange Army heading into half-time.

Deng hit his second three of the game to begin proceedings, Bul Kuol warmed things up with a three-point play and then the Snakes scored 12 consecutive points including a triple from Hogg to grab the lead for the first time since the opening stages.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Big time shots by Owen Foxwell! ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live and free on 10 Peach and 10play | live on ESPN2 via Kayo Sports + Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/ry2424BozI">https://t.co/ry2424BozI</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1611976891828957184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Shannon Scott, Hogg and McCall then all dropped three-pointers heading into half-time for Cairns as the home team closed the half on a 23-7 run.

From the moment they trailed by 13 they outscored the Phoenix 30-12 to close the half to lead 57-49 while nailing 10/18 from three-point range.

There were stars galore with McCall and Hogg combining for 28 points at the half for the Snakes while Creek and Adnam had 32 for the Phoenix with Cairns shooting at 52 per cent and South East Melbourne 51.

Hogg scored first to open the second half to put Cairns on top double-digits, and that advantage only continued to grow. By the time Ben Ayre scored his first points of the game with consecutive three balls, the Snakes were up 15 three minutes out from three quarter-time.

That Cairns lead was still 76-62 at the end of three and back out to 16 with just over six minutes to go, but the Phoenix showed good heart from there. They hit the next eight points beginning with consecutive three balls from Owen Foxwell.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tahjere McCall is shooting today! He beats the half-time buzzer ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live and free on 10 Peach and 10play | live on ESPN2 via Kayo Sports + Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/W8fkg6wiLv">pic.twitter.com/W8fkg6wiLv</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1611965989247410178?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Phoenix comeback became more unlikely with Creek off the floor with an eye injury and it did prove the case even though they got back within six. The Taipans did enough to secure the important nine-point win.

The Taipans remain at home to host the Illawarra Hawks on Friday night while the Phoenix don’t play again until next Monday against the Brisbane Bullets at Melbourne's State Basketball Centre.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 14

CAIRNS TAIPANS 94 (McCall 24, Scott 19, Hogg 16)

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 85 (Creek 25, Broekhoff 17, Williams 16)

BOX SCORE