Randle-Lisch partnership inspires Kings’ win

THE 2018-19 NBL season is still about eight months away but the Sydney Kings are building up for the next campaign quite nicely.

The bottom-of-the-table Kings continued their late-season resurgence with an 86-93 victory over the Cairns Taipans on Saturday night in Far North Queensland.

While Sydney were in conAT trol for the majority of the evening, what would have pleased the Kings faithful the most was the emerging partnership between star pair Jerome Randle and Kevin Lisch.

The former NBL MVPs contributed their points in different ways and at different stages of the game, but they worked well in tandem and picked their spots for each other.

While Lisch is still finding his feet after his calf injury, Randle put the Kings on his back and almost single-handedly broke the spirit of the Taipans in the third term with his flurry of buckets.

The pair combined for 40 of the Kings points, as well as dishing out eight assists.

Lisch, in perhaps his best game since tearing his calf early in the season, said they complemented each other.

“I think on the defensive end, Jerome and I can really get at it,” the Kings skipper said. “Jerome has been a guy that has scored a lot in his career but he can defend as well.

“We are all pretty unselfish so that helps a lot, too.”

After two big wins over defending champion Perth Wildcats recently, Andrew Gaze’s men added Cairns to their hitlist as they showed they would cause headaches in the final two rounds of the season.

Gaze was smiling about his two leading men after the victory. “They’re two former league MVP’s so a lot of time I just sit back and relax be a fun and let them do their thing,” Gaze said.

The visitors went on an 8-0 run late in the second term, led by star man Randle, which opened up an 11-point advantage. Randle dropped 16 first half points to hand the Kings a 44-53 halftime lead.