BULLETS LETHAL WITH DEFENCE
IT was more “Sunshine Grind” than “Sunshine Stoush’’ but Brisbane hustled and muscled their way to a hard- fought 83- 78 win over Cairns in the NBL’s Queensland derby last night.
The Bullets grabbed Sunshine State bragging rights in Brisbane after holding off a determined Taipans in the fourth quarter to claim their first win of the season.
Brisbane led all night but Cairns closed to within three points on three different occasions in the dying minutes.
Despite arriving back from the US on Monday, the Bullets had plenty of legs and poise to close out the match and hand the Taipans their second straight loss.
It was a critical victory for Brisbane given last night’s clash was the first of four matches in nine days.
Bullets centre Tom Jervis topscored with 18 points and had eight rebounds while high- flying import Perrin Buford finished with 15 points, six boards and three important blocks.
Veterans Anthony Petrie ( 12 points) and Adam Gibson ( eight points, three assists and two steals) were important in the last quarter while Daniel Kickert and Travis Trice had 10 points each for the Bullets.
Alex Loughton and Scoochie Smith had 15 points each for the Taipans, who trailed by as many as 13 points in the third quarter.
In the end, Brisbane’s tenacious defence and superior finishing was too good.
Bullets coach Andrej Lemanis said the fighting qualities on show stood out.
“That was the most pleasing thing tonight, we showed some character and a bit of heart about us,’’ he said.
“The last two days of practice that came out and that started to give me some confidence that we were heading in the right direction.”