TAIPANS AIM TO CRASH BRISBANE’S PARTY TO KEEP NBL HOPES ALIVE

Brisbane pinched our New Year’s Eve game so Taipans aim to steal their thunder

ALEX Loughton might not hit the town as much as he once did but he’s eager to crash Brisbane’s party on behalf of Taipans diehards denied their traditional New Year’s Eve celebration.

Fans were outraged when the NBL announced Brisbane would host the fixture in place of Cairns in the ultimate slap in the face to the Far North.

Loughton said beating the Bullets tonight might not make a difference whether the fixture returned to its rightful home next season, but admitted it would add even more spice to the Queensland derby.

“If we can’t have a party, we’d certainly like to crash someone else’s,” he said.

“I think to not have the New Year’s Eve game, we do feel a bit gypped and we’re going into this game a bit more passionate.

“It means a lot to us to have a good New Year’s Eve clash.”

The 33-year-old said while it was a big motivation, the focus tonight would be on fixing the discipline and decision-making errors highlighted in the onepoint loss to Melbourne United.

“I think we felt like we played a good game ... except for that patch at the end of the third and fourth quarter and we definitely have to turn it around real quick,” Loughton said.

“It’s ideal to have another game to focus on than have to lament it during a week of training.”

THEY HAD TO PLAY A FEW GAMES THIS YEAR WITH (BAIRSTOW) OUT WITH HIS SHOULDER AND THEY PLAYED SOME REALLY GOOD BALL WITHOUT HIM FEARNE ON BRISBANE’S MAIN MAN

THE last night of 2016 could be the beginning of the end for the Cairns Taipans’ season if players fail to find their range against an undermanned Brisbane team tonight.

Taipans head coach Aaron Fearne lamented the lack of “attention to detail” in the loss to Melbourne United after giving up a 14-point lead midway through the third quarter, falling away due to ill-discipline, poor decision-making and untimely turnovers.

The Bullets have been stewing over an embarrassing 38point loss to the same opponent and will have home advantage on their side after the NBL ended the New Year’s Eve tradition of a home game in Cairns this season.

Fearne urged his players to let go the demons of the loss and learn from their mistakes.

“They’ll just have to recover well and let this one go and get ready for Brisbane,” he said.

“We’ll prepare, we’ll prepare as well as we can. We’ve had time over the break to prepare for both games.

“Brisbane will come out and do some things and they’ll get after us, they’ve had a couple of days off so we’re going to have to deal with that and it’s a big game from a series perspective so we’ll see what we can do.”

Brisbane have been writtenoff in the eyes of many pundits after a season-ending injury to Cam Bairstow and doubts over the fitness of former Taipan Torrey Craig (ankle).

“They’ll be fine. They had to play a few games this year with (Bairstow) out with his shoulder and they played some really good ball without him there,” Fearne said of Brisbane.

“It’s going to be huge shock to their system that he’s out because he’s missed games already so they’ll be tough. Andre (Lemanis) will get them playing and they’ll be embarrassed after their game the other night and they’ll be playing in front of their home crowd on New Year’s Eve

“It will be a big environment for us to go and play in.”

Taipans point guard Travis Trice was confident the team (7-9) could overcome the disappointment of the last-minute Melbourne United loss.

“This one hurts but at the same time we don’t want to let one turn into two and for it to keep rolling so we need to move on, learn from our mistakes and try to turn it around in the next game,” he said.