Round 12: Taipans lose tight open-air game in Melbourne

CQUniversity Cairns Taipans (81) lost to Melbourne United (84)
Round 12 | John Cain Arena
Next Game: Taipans v 36ers, Saturday 31 December 7:00pm AEST

SUMMARY

The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans kept on fighting but couldn’t quite complete the comeback victory in the open-air pre-Christmas clash with Melbourne United at John Cain Arena.

A crowd of 10,175 turned out for the occasion and while Melbourne led the game from start to finish, Cairns kept on firing back each time they threatened to pull away.

Despite United leading by as much as 15 points and still by seven with 46 seconds left. Cairns kept coming and got back within three after two huge DJ Hogg's threes, but it wasn’t quite enough with Melbourne winning 84-81.

The Snakes remain in the top four but go into Christmas at 10-7 having lost their last two.

Rayjon Tucker got off to another hot start for Melbourne with the game's first five points and by the time Chris Goulding knocked down three three-pointers, including one that counted after an offensive foul was overturned on a Dean Vickerman challenge, Melbourne was up 16-6.

United maintained that lead for most of the rest of the opening quarter until Shannon Scott closed it out with a triple to bring the Snakes back within five after one.

Sam Waardenburg then opened up the second quarter with a three and Cairns was back within two but tempers were beginning to flare under the setting sun. 

Melbourne soon pulled away once more and it was back-to-back triples from Tucker that completed a 9-0 run to see that lead get out to a game-high 15 points.

Cairns did steady with the next five points including a make from downtown by Majok Deng. Brad Newley responded in kind for Melbourne but the Taipans stayed in touch and a near half-court shot from Tahjere McCall went in to cut the United lead to 47-39 by the break.

Tucker and Goulding had combined for 30 points on 6/11 three-point shooting for Melbourne but Cairns did well to hang around despite Keanu Pinder's impact limited and despite the 10 turnovers.

Melbourne's lead was back out beyond double-digits with the first four points of the second but the Taipans kept in touch and closed the gap to four on the back of three-pointers from McCall and Hogg while Mirko Djeric continued to frustrate Goulding.

United did hit back with a Shea Ili three-point bomb on the back of a huge block from Marcus Lee on an attempted block from Pinder.

However, the Snakes hung around and Pinder scored on the buzzer to cut Melbourne's lead to eight at three quarter-time.

Cairns' fourth quarter didn’t start well with Bul Kuol picking up his fifth foul and then a bomb by Tucker stretched Melbourne's lead to 11, but the Snakes weren’t going away.

They hit the next five points including a big block from Pinder on Peatling to again be within six with six minutes to play.

Out of that timeout, Goulding made his first field goal since quarter-time having sneaked away from Djeric. Peatling then scored a layup on a turnover and United were back up 10 with another timeout called.

A Goulding triple pushed Melbourne's lead back out to 13 but Cairns scored the next eight points to make things interesting with the margin just five with two minutes to play.

But another Cairns turnover led to a Tucker breakaway throwdown even though the Snakes kept on coming. Two massive late threes from Hogg kept the margin at three, then the Taipans had the final possession. However, McCall's three didn’t drop and the Snakes just came up short.

STATISTICS

Tahjere McCall finished the night top-scoring for Cairns with 21 points to go with seven rebounds, five assists and two steals. 

DJ Hogg added 20 points, five rebounds and three assists, Keanu Pinder 16 points and eight boards, and Shannon Scott 12 points, three assists and two steals.

Mirko Djeric stepped up to play 31:34 with some tremendous defence on Chris Goulding with six rebounds, two assists and a steal while Bul Kuol was limited by fouls to under 12 minutes.

Sam Waardenburg returned with seven points and three rebounds with Majok Deng contributing five points and four boards.

STATEMENTS

Head Coach Adam Forde: 

"It took us a while to get flowing offensively and we tried to go to a particular game model which wasn’t as clean as we'd hoped or liked. Keanu is a big focus especially so when his face fouled Rayjon Tucker and we had to go stitch him up we had to sort of look to other avenues, and then try to get him back going. It was just the result I think of a bit of a long schedule, and long couple of weeks. Credit to the guys, we just really were gritty to the end and made it a contest and I can't fault what the boys did in the face of adversity."

Taipans Guard Mirko Djeric:

"Any time you verse a Boomer it's always something you can't wait for that match up. I've guarded Goulding a long time and it's always a challenge, but knowing what shots he's going to take because they are shots I would like to take as a junior especially. That's always in my back pocket and it's always a good challenge with him, and it's always fair and competitive. It's also very hard and taxing on your body because I've got about 500 screens to get through for him. But it wasn’t just Goulding. They played well from the start, Rayjon Tucker got into rhythm and then I think Marcus Lee in the first half was massive on those boards. We have to do a better job on that."