Vasiljevic stars as in-form 36ers smash Taipans

Sunday, January 28, 2024

Dejan Vasiljevic scored 28 points and the 36ers have continued their purple patch with a comfortable 17-point win.

The Adelaide 36ers have kept their flickering NBL finals hopes alive, continuing their late-season resurrection with a clinical 88-71 victory over the Cairns Taipans.

Sharpshooter Dejan Vasiljevic (28 points) and a commanding 25-13 second-quarter played pivotal roles in the 36ers' third successive win in front of a fifth consecutive sellout Adelaide Entertainment Centre crowd on Saturday.

Lat Mayen (15 points) top-scored off the bench for the Taipans, whose disastrous outing was further soured when centre Sam Waardenburg, back after missing three games with concussion, went off after copping an accidental elbow to the face from Nick Marshall in the closing minutes.

Undermanned Cairns, without Sam Mennenga (back), Bobi Klintman (concussion) and Jonah Antonio (calf), needed more from star import guards Patrick Miller (eight points at 13 per cent) and Tahjere McCall (six points at 25 per cent).

The blowout result was extra costly for the Taipans (11-14), who would have catapulted to fourth place with a victory but instead slump to eighth.

Mayen was active off the bench early with nine first-quarter points in four minutes but Vasiljevic was unstoppable at the other end with 11 points (four layups and a three-pointer) to give Adelaide a 28-25 edge at the opening break.

From that point the result was never in doubt.

The Sixers smashed the Snakes in all facets, outrebounding them 17-7 in the second term and monstering them 36-6 in the paint to open up a 15-point halftime buffer.

Cairns missed 15 of their 17 second-quarter shot attempts and coughed up nine first-half turnovers, thanks to a combination of Trey Kell's active hands and their own butterfingers.

Adelaide extended their advantage to 75-53 at three-quarter time before starting the fourth stanza with Vasiljevic's fifth triple and ended it with a spectacular Jason Cadee-to-Trentyn Flowers alley-oop.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 17

ADELAIDE 36ERS 88 (Vasiljevic 28, Kell III 11, Humphries 10)
CAIRNS TAIPANS 71 (Mayen 15, Kuol 13, Armstrong 10)

BOX SCORE