Battling Taipans fall short in Sydney
AN undermanned Cairns Taipans played the bottom of the ladder Sydney back into form last night as the Kings cruised to a 81- 72 victory to keep their season alive.
The Kings triumph was just their third of the campaign as Cairns could not continue their momentum from their huge win over Illawarra just before the FIBA break.
While the Taipans loss, their seventh of the season, is bad news for the club, it is only amplified as the now full- ofconfidence Kings are their next opponents, at home on Saturday afternoon.
Andrew Gaze’s men will need to play like their season is on the line every game for the rest of the campaign and that is exactly how they started last night. Australian Boomers guard Jason Cadee lit the fire early on for the hosts as he had 16 points before halftime.
Reigning MVP Jerome Randle pulled the strings for his new club while the Kings received increased contributions from big men pairing, Jeremy Tyler and Isaac Humphries.
The Snakes kept pace for much of the first term before a Cadee triple followed by a Tyler three- point play opened up a double figure advantage before the Kings pushed it out to 24 at one stage.
The Snakes suffocating zone defence brought them back into the contest, bringing it back to six points in the final term, but Sydney did enough to hold on.
Cairns are terribly injuryplagued with, what could be, their starting front court in Stephen Weigh, Michael Carrera and Nate Jawai all expected to be out of action for at least the next two weeks.