Game Preview: Taipans v Hawks

Facing the Hawks for the first time since their win in Wollongong, Cairns will need to prepare to defend their home court as they host Illawarra for their nominated Summer Shootout game, with the target to hold them under 112 to retain the top spot in the standings.

Where and When

Thursday, January 23 at the Cairns Convention Centre (6:30pm AEST)

How to Follow

Watch: Live on ESPN

Live Updates: Taipans X

Stats: Box Score

What’s Already Happened

Their Last Battle: Cairns Taipans (108) v Illawarra Hawks (105) in Round 15

As the Hawks travel to Far North Queensland for just their second road trip since New Year’s Eve – hosting six home games across a 21-day window – they’ll be arriving at a venue where they’ve struggled to overcome Adam Forde’s men.

Walking away with a win in Round 5, Illawarra have otherwise fallen in narrow contests over the two prior seasons, with margins of 10, five and a single point across those fixtures.

The Hawks have nominated this game for their Summer Shootout match, but Cairns will be feeling good about their chances. Illawarra have only been able to reach triple digits once since 2020 at the Convention Centre. 

Last time these teams met, it was a wild scoring frenzy that saw the Taipans take down the top-of-the-table team on their home court. Both sides were able to pile on the points in a high scoring contest which saw 213 points scored across the evening, with two Cairns starters reaching 28 points.

TUFF FINISH TARAN 😤

📲 @cairnstaipans | 📺 @espn pic.twitter.com/Eb3BO2ROaz

— Cairns Taipans (@CairnsTaipans) January 3, 2025

Despite being outrebounded and being unable to match their opponents shooting efficiency, fewer turnovers and drawing consistent fouls saw them edge themselves ahead, with 14 points added from the free throw line in the third quarter alone and Taran Armstrong scoring four from the line in the dying seconds enough steal the win.

The key to Illawarra’s success this season has been generating extra looks at the basket – leading all rebounding and turnover stats across the league – allowing them to also lead the field goals attempted stat, however with Darius Days missing from the fixture, the question remains of how well they’ll be able to perform on the glass without him.

Meanwhile, Cairns will be entering the matchup with a completely healthy lineup, with their lineup of Sam Waardenburg, Tanner Groves, AK Gak, Kyrin Galloway and Alex Higgins-Titsha eyeing the battle.

Player to Watch

After struggling with foul trouble across December, Tanner Groves has started the new year strong – averaging 13 points and 7.5 rebounds across 25 minutes of court time across the last four games, with the center only committing five fouls across those appearances.

Only trailing AK Gak for rebounds per 36 minutes of action, the American has also been working to find efficient shots – hitting 63% of his attempts across his last nine games with 17 triples across that period.

CLEAN-UP CREW 😤

Groves throws down the second chance points!

📲 @cairnstaipans | 📺 @espn pic.twitter.com/jt1TORT0gh

— Cairns Taipans (@CairnsTaipans) January 19, 2025

On Thursday night he’ll face Sam Froling, who struggled against Groves in their last clash. Only able to contribute five points with a single made field goal from seven attempts, the Hawk was unable to make a meaningful impact with the Taipans walking away with the win.

What's Been Said

Taipans Head Coach Adam Forde:

“The guys have always been good and always respond. This is one thing that I do like about the group is that they don’t back down from a challenge – we knew exactly what the areas that we need to fix and work on are, so now we get another chance to play two very tough team this weekend to redeem ourselves.

“I think that Tanner Groves has been having a great run now that’s he’s worked out the foul discipline side of things, so I want to get him some looks. He ends up just doing a lot of laps up and down the floor if guys are coming down and jacking up the first shot, so I want to be able to reward him for his effort and get him some real good looks.

“Naturally Illawarra are the number one team coming in, and we’re their Shootout team, so there’s a real incentive for the guys to make sure that we get it done defensively, but there are a lot of things that we can look to use as motivation for Thursday.”

Taipans forward AK Gak:

“Tanner and I compete at practice, so we haven’t been able to compete obviously with me being hurt and him being hurt earlier in the year, but he’s been able to teach me some things and I’ve taught him some things, so it’s been great.

“We just need to bounce back. We need to forget about the loss, and it’s a quick turnaround so just forget about it and then move on.

“We have nothing to lose. We’re a bunch of young and very ambitious dudes so we’ve got nothing to lose, and we just need to go out there and play the game that we’ve been playing for so long.”

The Lineups

Taipans

PG – Taran Armstrong / Kyle Adnam

SG – Rob Edwards / Jonah Antonio

SF – Pedro Bradshaw / Kyrin Galloway / Alex Higgins-Titsha

PF – Sam Waardenburg / AK Gak / Kody Stattmann

C – Tanner Groves / Dillon Stith

Hawks

PG – Trey Kell III / Will Hickey

SG – Tyler Harvey / Hyunjung Lee / Kuany Kuany

SF – Wani Swaka Lo Buluk / Daniel Grida

PF – Mason Peatling / Todd Blanchfield 

C – Sam Froling / Lachlan Olbrich

Ins and Outs 

Taipans

Game time decision – Taran Armstrong

Ins – Alex Higgins-Titsha, Kody Stattmann

Hawks

Ins – Kuany Kuany

Outs – Darius Days (hamstring)