The Cairns Taipans have consolidated third place on the NBL ladder with a hard-fought 96-89 win over the Illawarra Hawks on the WIN Entertainment Centre.
After a scratchy begin, Cairns rattled off a 22-0 burst both facet of quarter-time on Monday night time to open up an 18-point lead earlier than efficiently holding off the Hawks’ greatest fightback efforts.
Americans Shannon Scott (18 factors) and DJ Hogg (16) led a fair show from the Taipans who had six gamers in double digits and, regardless of lacking star Keanu Pinder (ankle), snapped a 10-game dropping streak in Wollongong which stretched again to 2016.
“It’s always good when you do it by committee,” Taipans coach Adam Forde stated.
“As usual DJ closed it out with some big plays at the end.”
Sam Froling (25 factors, 13 rebounds) and Tyler Harvey (21 factors) stood up for the house facet.
Without injured import duo Michael Frazier (hamstring tightness) and Peyton Siva (shoulder), the bottom-placed, undermanned Hawks made a quick begin, pulling forward 11-2.
When New Year’s Eve hero Scott went off briefly to have a leg knock assessed, Ayre was injected into the sport and performed the quarter of his life.
The back-up guard poured in 15 factors to spark the Snakes and provides them a slim quarter-time lead.
The floodgates continued to open within the second stanza because the Taipans rattled off the primary 17 factors to carry sway 44-28 earlier than Illawarra responded with a 12-0 run of their very own, serving to trim the deficit to 58-48 at halftime.
The Hawks continued to chip away, scoring the final eight factors of the third time period to shut to inside three and taking the lead within the fourth through a Harvey floater.
Illawarra clearly had the momentum however down the stretch their offensive execution turned diabolical as Cairns, conversely, held their nerve in spectacular vogue.
“I can’t not be proud of the guys with their effort,” Hawks coach Jacob Jackomas stated.
“It’s a tough one with guys coming in and out of the roster (with injuries) through no-one’s fault.
“There had been some errors we made that price us victory … the errors we made had been ‘inexperience’ errors.”
