Best form too late for terrific Taipans
BASKETBALL LATE on Friday night, thousands of Taipans fans, maybe laying in bed staring at the roof or down at the pub having a quiet drink, would have been wondering the same thing: where was that performance when it mattered?
The Snakes had dropped five of their past six games leading into Friday night’s encounter with Perth, crashing them out of NBL finals contention for the 2017-18 season.
Cairns had little to play for on Friday, in the context of the season, while the Wildcats had everything on the line as they looked to grab the all-important home-court advantage come playoffs time.
The Taipans, minus star big man Nate Jawai, played like the club that were on the verge of a finals campaign as they put together one of their best performances of the season to upset the twice defending champions, 85-83.
The visitors led for much of the evening before the Wildcats looked about to steal victory right at the death following a pair of Jesse Wagstaff free throws.
Cairns leadership pair Cameron Gliddon and Stephen Weigh were having none of that though.
Skipper Gliddon drilled a three, his fifth of the game, with 29 seconds to go before the retiring Weigh sealed the triumph at the free throw line with four seconds to play to secure Cairns’ first win in Perth in their past six starts.
“We played really loose and moved the ball,” Taipans coach Aaron Fearne said afterwards.
“We played loose for about 36 minutes. We have shot the ball league-worst all year and we have to shoot the ball really well to be competitive.”
The Snakes now have beaten three of the four NBL finalists on the road this season, displaying how impressive they have been at times this season. But, on the other hand, they have also been beaten at home by the bottom two clubs, Brisbane and Sydney, to show their inconsistency.
On Friday night the Taipans had zero to lose and it showed as they shot the ball confidently and their offence flowed more freely than it has in recent games.
Their ball movement in the third term, in particular, was some of the best they have produced all season as they opened up a 14-point advantage following Alex Loughton and Jerry Evans Jr triples.
Point guard Weeks, who has enjoyed a career-best second half of the season, hit four threes and pushed the pace when needed.
The visitors drained 15 threes inside the first three terms, which was the most made by any visiting team at Perth Arena, as they finished with 17 for the game.
Rarely used rookie Kuany Kuany was injected into the game early on and impressed as he blocked a shot from Derek Cooke Jr and worked hard defensively on Clint Steindl.
Perth coach Trevor Gleeson conceded that a top-two NBL finish was now unlikely.
The Snakes have just one game to play in the 2017-18 season, away at Perth next Sunday night.