LOUGHTON TO RETIRE A TAIPAN
WITH nine Cairns Taipans jobs up for grabs next season, little-known development player Fabijan Krslovic is making his case.
In another afternoon to forget for the Snakes against Adelaide on Saturday, the undersized power forward put together his best NBL game yet, almost recording a doubledouble in 18 minutes of court time.
Coach Mike Kelly told the Cairns Marlin to be ready to play pre-game and the 24year-old did not need a second invitation, collecting 11 points, on 5-7 shooting, to go with seven rebounds.
Under NBL rules, the University of Montana graduate is too old to come back as a development player again in 2019-20, but with the way he played, a full-time roster spot would not be out of the question.
Krslovic did not do it all himself but he certainly played a leading role in Cairns being within touching distance at halftime, grabbing seven points and four rebounds in the first half alone.
“It was his first opportunity at bigger minutes and he took those minutes, I did not give them to him, he took them,” Kelly said.
“I found it difficult to take him out of the game because he played hard.
“He is playing against some really good veterans in training and it has now come to a point where he had to get some minutes and a taste at an NBL level against a very good team.
“He held his own against Jacob Wiley.”
Kelly has often spoken about wanting to get a look at his bench and development players with an eye to next season and he is backing up his words with Krslovic and Kuany Kuany finding more opportunities of late.
Retiring captain Alex Loughton backed up Kelly’s vote of confidence towards Krslovic, declaring his young teammate was an energy guy who took his chance with both hands.
The 36ers gave their finals hopes a big boost while handing Cairns their 20th defeat of the NBL season in the process on Saturday afternoon.
Adelaide’s victory lifted them into the top four for the time being, with fellow finals aspirant Brisbane falling to Sydney on Friday.
In a game of momentum swings, the 36ers held the ascendancy for longer periods, notching 91-100.
Despite sitting for much of the second term, former Snake Nathan Sobey was electric, drilling two trifectas in the third quarter as well as attacking the rim.
The inconsistent Snakes were at their best, losing the first term by 12, winning the second by 10 and going down by 10 in the third stanza.