Taipans put on show in front of huge home crowd

The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans honoured NBL Indigenous Round and their last home game of the regular season at Cairns Convention Centre on the best possible note, beating the Illawarra Hawks 99-75 in a spectacular performance

While the Hawks are anchored to the bottom of the NBL table, three of their five wins this season have come at the expense of the Taipans so there would be complacency from the Snakes in front of the biggest Orange Army turnout of 5168 for the season

It was the last home game for the regular season for the Taipans too and with the team decked out in striking uniforms for Indigenous Round, they put on quite the spectacular performance

Whether it was Cam Oliver throwing down slam after slam, Scott Machado dishing out assist after assist on his way to setting the NBL 40-minute record in a season or DJ Newbill and Mirko Djeric knocking down threes, or George Blagojevic delivering a career-best showing, there was plenty to celebrate

In the end it was just an emphatic performance from the Taipans who led by as much as 31 points before winning by 24 to make it three wins succession, eight in the last nine and 13 in the last 17 as they improve to a 15-10 and be locked away further in third position with three games to go

By the finish, 10 Taipans players had all scored and played at least 10 minutes with co-captain DJ Newbill delivering 20 points and three rebounds including going 4/7 from threepoint territory

Cam Oliver added 17 points, five rebounds and four emphatic blocks too while Scott Machado finished with 12 points and 10 assists as he rockets past Cedric Jackson's previous season assist record in the NBL's 40-minute game era

Majok Deng had his moments too for 12 points with George Blagojevic producing his career-best performance made up of 10 points and two rebounds

Mirko Djeric also had nine points for the Taipans, Nate Jawai six, Fabijan Krslovic five (five rebounds, four steals, two assists), Jarrod Kenny five and Anthony Fisher three

Taipans coach Mike Kelly was especially happy to dig deep into his bench throughout the night
"We think about percentage as we fight for a possible finals berth and what it could mean, but we are about developing the players that we have and building the future here with the Taipans" Kelly said
"The group's been good and we haven’t gone real deep into our bench consistently, but I think the development of the guys who have played some minutes, and Fab is a good example, has been really good
The guys who have gotten more minutes have stepped up and earned them, and then gotten back in
That was George tonight and then Fish got more of a run and so did Tad
It has been good to be able to reward them with some minutes"

Josh Boone top-scored for Illawarra with 19 points and 10 rebounds with Sam Froling adding 13 points and Todd Blanchfield 12

The Hawks might have opened the game with a three to Todd Blanchfield, but they were back in a zone daring the Snakes to shoot up the other end
The Taipans took the invite with Mirko Djeric and Fabijan Krslovic hitting from deep while Cam Oliver threw one down inside as part of a 12-0 run

Another 9-0 run that included seven points from DJ Newbill soon had the Snakes leading 21-7
The Hawks did fire back late in the first term, but Cairns still led 23-17 after one

Cairns then opened the second period with the first five points to lead by 11 and that advantage soon grew to 14 when Oliver knocked one down from deep
Again the Hawks kept fighting and even made their own 11-3 run at one point, but Cairns responded firstly with a thunderous finish from Oliver Nate Jawai was then proving unstoppable down low before
Djeric and then Newbill closed the half with triples to put the home team up 54-40

The Hawks started the second half with eight quick points, but the Taipans answered in the most emphatic way with three straight three-pointers to Newbill, Oliver and Djeric
Oliver turned that into a 12-2 run with a three-point play conversion as the Snakes' lead grew to 19
Jarrod Kenny hit another from downtown heading into three quarter-time for an 85-57 edge before Machado started the final term with another from deep as the lead grew to 31

The Taipans went on from there to cruise to the comfortable 24-point victory that snapped the tough run against the Hawks and set up a tilt at the playoffs just nicely in the last home game of the regular season

The Taipans now finish the regular season on the road against Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane
Win all of those and finishing second isn’t even out of the equation for the Snakes

NBL ROUND 18

CQUNIVERSITY CAIRNS TAIPANS 99 (Newbill 20, Oliver 17, Machado 12, Deng 12)

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 75 (Boone 19, Froling 13, Blanchfield 12)