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GAME ONE
Friday 28th February 2020
Brave, Machado-led Snakes fall short by one
The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans threw everything at the Perth Wildcats and played their part in a classic NBL semi-final and despite the one-point overtime loss, there's plenty of heart for the Snakes to bring into Game 2
The heart and fight shown by the Snakes in the most hostile venue in the league against a Perth team defending its championship and playing in a 34th consecutive finals series had to be admired
Even more so when the Taipans were down nine at quarter-time and had already taken 14 points from NBL MVP Bryce Cotton
DJ Newbill put the clamps on him to hold him scoreless in the second quarter
The co-captain scored 13 points himself and Cairns piled on 34 points to head into half-time with all the momentum leading 54-45
It was a game that was just destined to go down to the wire and the longer it went, the more it came down to the superstars Cotton and Scott Machado who both would produce individual performances of epic proportions
A big three before three quarter-time from Machado saw Cairns still up by three and then in the fourth the Snakes still led on several occasions, including by a point when Fabijan Krslovic connected from beyond the arc with two minutes to go
But in the end, Nick Kay also hit a three for Perth to tie scores up and it went to overtime
Machado hit a huge three early in the extra period and then Cam Oliver threw one down
Newbill connected from deep and also scored inside, but Cotton had hit another three triples along the way to give him 10 for the game on the way to 42 points
Cairns kept fighting but couldn’t quite get back in front and now after a performance with so much to like, they have to win at home on Sunday to force a Game 3 back in Perth on Thursday
There was so much to like from a Cairns point of view including shooting at 60.9 per cent from the floor and 15/27 from three-point range on top of collecting 42 rebounds to 30 and outscoring Perth by 20 points in the paint
Then there was the game of point guard maestro, Machado
Despite the stifling physical pressure applied to him by Perth, he produced 31 points, nine assists and eight rebounds on 11/18 shooting from the field and 5/8 from deep
DJ Newbill also produced 25 points on 9/12 shooting with 4/6 from long range while Cam Oliver battled hard all evening for 19 points and 18 rebounds on 7/10 shooting with 3/5 from three-point range
Nate Jawai gave good production in 17 minutes with 10 points and three rebounds while Fabijan Krslovic hit two threes for six points and Mirko Djeric finished with six points and three rebounds, Kouat Noi five points and three boards, Majok Deng three points and Jarrod Kenny two points
Taipans coach Mike Kelly was a proud man about so many aspects of his team's performance, but ultimately the 17 turnovers stood out too much
"There's some frustration there but also pride in the way the guys stood up and played through some mistakes, and some shot making by the Wildcats" Kelly said
"We played a solid game against a really good team in front of a tough crowd
There's some pride there, but there are things we can definitely do better
We turned the ball over too much, you just can't turn the ball over here and you can't give up a lot of offensive rebounds
They got a lot more shots than us (16)
We shot the ball really well but didn’t get enough of the ball, or enough shots up
They kept up the pressure and we turned the ball over"
Game 2 will be at Cairns Convention Centre on Sunday from 4.00pm
NBL SEMI FINALS GAME 1
CQUNIVERSITY CAIRNS TAIPANS -- 107 (Machado 31, Newbill 25, Oliver 19)
PERTH WILDCATS -- 108 (Cotton 42, Kay 23, Norton 12)
Perth leads best-of-three series 1-0
Bryce Cotton heroics help Perth Wildcats escape in playoff thriller against Cairns
An extraordinary 42-point game from NBL MVP Bryce Cotton has the Perth Wildcats just one win away from another grand final appearance after a thrilling come from behind overtime victory over Cairns at RAC Arena last night
The reigning champions fought back from nine points down during the third quarter as defensive pressure and quality shooting turned the contest in front of a pulsating and parochial home crowd
The lead changed six times during the final quarter and scores were level six other times in an extraordinary finish
But Cotton proved to be the difference in the 108-107 win
He scored nine points in overtime and 10 three-pointer for the game
Cotton has an extraordinary record in finals and he further cemented his place in the record books with a brilliant performance
Cotton broke Cairns’ hearts in the opening semi final of the 2016-17 season when he scored 34 points on an away court and he then produced 45 points in the grand final
“He is so special” captain Damian Martin said
“When he shoots the ball, you can almost start running back because you know it’s going in
He’s as good a player as the Wildcats have had
He went to another level and for him to stand up under the spotlight when we were down by nine was something special”
His effort came despite MVP runner-up Scott Machado scoring 31 points, having nine assists and eight rebounds
Nick Kay was again influential with 23 points and nine rebounds
His three-pointer sent the game to overtime and then he sunk two free throws with 32 seconds remaining in overtime to give the Wildcats a three-point buffer
Perth led by nine points at quarter time but the Taipans blasted that deficit away in less than four minutes to surge to the front
Cairns entered the game full of confidence having beaten the Wildcats twice from three matches throughout the regular season
That included a 23-point thumping at RAC Arena in October
The Taipans scored 30 points in a quarter in each of those games and repeated the dose with 34 during the second period to lead by nine points at the long break
The Wildcats pressured Machado at every opportunity but his class stood out
Cam Oliver scored 19 points and had 18 rebounds while DJ Newbill scored 25 points
“They’re a great team” Martin said
“There’s a reason they finished third
They’ve got the players out there so we are elated to get game one done and now we have to try to close it out”
GAME TWO
Sunday 1st March 2020
Geoff to Brett
Have a Terrific Time at the Taipans v Wildcats game tonight !!
And say "hello" to the Statistician Tanya Mary from us !!
Cairns level series against defending champions
Momentum is a dangerous thing in sports and heading back across the Nullarbor this week, the Cairns Taipans have all of it in their NBL semi-finals series
After their heartbreaking overtime loss to the Perth Wildcats on Friday night, Cairns showed no signs of a hangover from that as they ran it down the defending champions throat from the early exchanges
In one of their more complete performances for the entire season, the Snakes levelled the series 1-1 with a 85-74 victory and now head back to the West with all the ascendancy
There was question marks about how Cairns, in their first finals series as a group, would respond from such a devastating loss on Friday night but Mike Kelly’s squad was locked in and focused
The hosts would extend out to a 20-point advantage in the third stanza but the Wildcats would peg it back to just 10 at the final change
A Clint Steindl triple would make it seven with four minutes to play but from then on, the hosts did enough to hold off Perth
It was just one of those night’s for the Snakes, tough shots to close out shot clocks fell and the visitors missed a number of lay-ups they would usually complete with their eyes closed
Cameron Oliver was a beast for the Taipans and made Perth’s Miles Plumlee near-on unplayable at times
The Snakes’ fans MVP gave it to Plumlee under the bucket and when he stepped outside, made him pay even more
Oliver was one of the better rebounders in the NBL in the regular season but he has taken it to another level once the finals have rolled around
The all-NBL second team member had a double-double by halftime and would only add to it from there on, finishing with 22 points and 19 rebounds ... which were both team high’s for Cairns
Oliver has been the most consistent player in the series so far as we now head towards a decider
“We stayed composed
We didn’t hang our heads after our first loss” Oliver said post-game on the court
“Of course it’s not over for the series
We have to go back to Perth and get it done
It’s definitely a home away from home ... I love this city”
The first term was electric for the side in orange, their offence flowed, they gave Perth little opportunities to get into their own sets as they fed from the big crowd
There was always going to be a sizeable attendance for the first finals game in FNQ in three years but they were engaged from the opening tip and were loud throughout
Scott Machado’s second long bomb in as many minutes would make Cairns’ lead as much as 15 midway through the second quarter
After he put on an all-time show on Friday night, league MVP Bryce Cotton was well held in Game 2, not scoring in the first half and just generally lacking his usual influence
Turn overs have been a constant issue of late for the Snakes but they held on to the ball on Sunday in a more controlled performance
The semi-final series now heads towards a third and deciding game on Thursday night in Perth
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