- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The Cairns Taipans have rejoined the winners circle, recording an emphatic 17-point victory over the Illawarra Hawks on Saturday afternoon.
Final score
Cairns Taipans 99
Illawarra Hawks 82
The Cairns Taipans will be looking to get themselves back into the winners circle and off the bottom of the NBL ladder when they host the in-form Illawarra Hawks on Saturday evening in a battle of the two regional teams.
The Taipans might have turned their season around heading into the halfway mark after a slow start, but it didn’t stop them putting on two ordinary performances last week to go back to the bottom of the table.
Despite their home court, the Cairns Convention Centre – better known as the snakepit – has been turned into somewhat of a fortress over the years, it looked anything but last week as the Taipans went down twice in the space of four days.
The club were full of confidence coming into Round 10 having won two straight, but it was always going to be a challenge taking on the top teams in the competition – the Sydney Kings and the red-hot Adelaide 36ers.
The Taipans actually looked to have the better of the Kings for quite some time, but simply couldn’t go on with it in the fourth quarter as the pressure visibly caught up to the Cairns-based club.
It was a different story against the 36ers on Monday though as they went down by 13. They were blown out of the gates early on before fighting to get the game into a much more suited halfcourt style, but eventually fell by the wayside during the final quarter.
If the Taipans can slow the game down and get it into the halfcourt style there are few teams who would be confident of beating them, however the higher scoring game that suits the Hawks will leave the Taipans wanting.
Their key man has undoubtedly been Mark Worthington, who looks somewhere back to his best this season, particularly on defence while Travis Trice has also been exciting.
As mentioned, the Hawks have been much stronger when able to play the fast paced, high scoring model of Basketball and it’s hardly a surprise with Rotnei Clarke getting into strong form and being backed up well by Mitch Norton, Marvelle Harris and AJ Ogilvy at times.
The Hawks, despite looking like one of the worst teams in the competition just a month ago have sprung to life on the back of Clarke, kicking it off with a massive win over the Breakers and finding form to sit in the top four.
In such a changeable league, to sit in the top four for any length of time is an achievement, and the Hawks haven’t been any lower than where they sit now – third – for about three weeks.
Given they have won four of their last five including an impressive last start victory over the Brisbane Bullets, putting up big points more often than not they look like a dangerous side and if they can go to the next level will be well and truly in the championship picture.
Prediction
The Taipans are generally a very strong team at home, but them picking up this win looks a little bit beyond them. If their defence so much as has a concentration lapse, the Hawks are likely to take full advantage, as the 36ers did last Monday.
Hawks by 11
Key game information
Tip-off: 5:30pm (AEDT) – 4:30pm (local)
Venue: Cairns Convention Centre
TV: Live, Fox Sports 503
Online: NBL.TV
Betting: Taipans $1.70, Hawks $2.15
Last meeting: Round 4, Hawks 83 defeated by Taipans 98 @ WIN Entertainment CentreCairns Taipans (expected)
Point guard: Travis Trice
Shooting guard: Cameron Gliddon
Small forward: Fuquan Edwin
Power forward: Mark Worthington
Centre: Nate Jawai
Bench: Nnanna Egwu, Alex Loughton, Damon Heuir, Mitch McCarron, Stephen Weigh, Jarrad Weeks, Anthony FisherIllawarra Hawks (expected)
Point guard: Mitchell Norton
Shooting guard: Marvelle Harris
Small forward: Kevin White
Power forward: Oscar Forman
Centre: AJ Ogilvy
Bench: Nick Kay, Rhys Martin, Rotnei Clarke, Tim Coenraad, Cody Ellis, Michael Hollyfield
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde