Taipans produce late rally to defeat 36ers

The Adelaide 36ers showed some more fight in the first game again under club legend Scott Ninnis, but just couldn't stop the Cairns Taipans who got a season-best 15 assists from Tahjere McCall in the 116-101 win.

It had been a tumultuous week for the Sixers who lost twice back in Round 9 before the post-match comments of coach CJ Bruton and star DJ Vasiljevic over the travel schedule grabbed the headlines.

By Wednesday, Bruton had been relieved of his duties into his third season in charge with Ninnis the man to replace him after having his own controversial exit as coach back in 2010.

However, Ninnis has gradually become more involved in the 36ers in recent years including being assistant to Bruton this season, and the only man involved in all four championships for the club took charge on Saturday night at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.

There was a shake up to the starting line-up as predicted with captain Mitch McCarron benched in favour of Next Star Trentyn Flowers, and in the end while you couldn't question the effort from the Sixers, they just couldn't keep the Snakes in check.

Cairns was coming off a dramatic Thursday night home loss to Sydney too where the game was delayed at half-time almost an hour thanks to a power surge which took out the air conditioning and shot clock.

But the Snakes came out hot on Saturday night putting up 35 points in the opening quarter and while there were encouraging signs from an Adelaide point of view, giving up 116 points was never going to be a winning recipe.

It was the experienced backcourt combination for the Taipans that was instrumental with Tahjere McCall finishing with 19 points, 15 assists, four rebounds and four steals with his partner in crime Pat Miller producing 26 points and five assists.

McCall paid tribute to his teammates for his superb assists haul.

"That's not me. That's the guys making a lot of shots," McCall told ESPN. 

"I'm just passing it to them and they were making the shots."

Next Star Bobi Klintman had a hot start with 20 of his 22 points for the game coming in the first half including four three-point makes.

Bul Kuol added 14 points for the winners, Jonah Antonio 12 with 4-of-7 three-point shooting and Sam Waardenburgh 12 to go with nine rebounds and two blocks.

Cairns ended up shooting 51 per cent from teh floor for the game and a stunning 15-of-28 at 53 per cent from deep. They also made 21-of-25 at the foul line after going 12-of-25 on Thursday against Sydney.

Despite the loss, the signs were there for Adelaide at the offensive end with DJ Vasiljevic putting up 30 points. Isaac Humphries also produced 22 points and nine rebounds with a greater focus on feeding him inside with Trey Kell III bouncing back from a scoreless performance against Tasmania with 21 points and six assists.

Captain McCarron only ended up playing 10 and-a-half minutes for two points and two rebounds while fellow veterans Jason Cadee and Sunday Dech didn't hit the court at all.

Adelaide (4-10) remain last on the ladder, while Cairns (6-8) are seventh.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 10

ADELAIDE 36ERS 101 (Vasiljevic 30, Humphries 22, Kell III 21)

CAIRNS TAIPANS 116 (Miller 26, Klintman 22, McCall 19)

BOX SCORE