Cairns Taipans have maintained their stranglehold on second within the NBL and clinched a playoff spot with an essential 94-87 win over state rivals Brisbane.
Adam Forde’s aspect is now one win forward of New Zealand within the standings, after the Breakers thwarted a late comeback in Saturday’s earlier recreation towards Melbourne United.
Cairns relied on Tahjere McCall, DJ Hogg and Bul Kuol via three quarters because the trio tallied 21 factors every and had been the one scorers except for Sam Waardenburg (5 factors) via half-hour of motion.
McCall suffered a heavy fall simply earlier than halftime and departed the sport briefly, however returned clearly harm within the second half and performed via the ache for the win in entrance of their house crowd.
Heading into the ultimate time period with a two-point buffer, their bench lastly obtained going, Majok Deng hitting three essential triples and Shannon Scott including seven important factors.
The scoring trio would end with 23 factors apiece as Forde’s aspect held on by seven to register their seventeenth win of the season and eight consecutive towards Brisbane within the sunshine stoush.
With simply two video games remaining and a number of other gamers managing accidents, Forde stated the additional break day from a top-two end is paramount.
“We’re the walking wounded at the moment,” he stated.
“If we can limp over the finish line it’s not that big of a deal -we’ve got a little bit more time to rest and recover with staying top two. So, these games are really important and that’s what we’re going for.”
For the Bullets, Nathan Sobey led the way in which with 27 factors on 40 per cent taking pictures and Tyler Johnson added 20 of his personal.
Brisbane pushed their rivals right through Saturday’s contest and trailed by just one at halftime following a high-scoring affair that see-sawed behind mini-runs by each groups.
Sobey lit up the Cairns Convention Centre with 13 first-quarter factors whereas Kuol discovered his common kind in derby video games for 12 of his personal.
The Bullets loved a six-point margin at first break after ending the quarter on a 21-9 run however Cairns’ skill to seek out the painted space resulted in 20 first-half free throw makes an attempt, of which they hit 17.
Brisbane dominated the opening half rebound depend 25-11 and had 13 second-chance factors however 12 turnovers proved pricey and Forde’s aspect capitalised with 14 factors coming from them.
Cairns end their season with video games towards Adelaide at house and a street journey to Perth in spherical 18.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
