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Captain Mitch McCarron has wound back the clock to pilot the Adelaide 36ers out of a five-game losing skid with a 83-57 hammering of the Cairns Taipans at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.
The contest was firmly in the balance when the Sixers led by one point midway through the third term on Friday before the Taipans folded meekly, outscored 9-0 to close the quarter and trumped a whopping 22-6 in the fourth.
McCarron (21 points and ten rebounds), an All-NBL Second Team selection last season with Melbourne but mired in a shooting slump since Adelaide secured his coveted signature in the off-season, produced his best game for the 36ers colours to lead the lop-sided charge.
(Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)
“They competed hard and they gave me what I asked of them,” Adelaide coach CJ Bruton said.
“All the boys did a very good job. The proof’s in the pudding.”
McCarron got hot early for the hosts, draining three triples in the opening stanza to guide Adelaide to a 20-16 quarter-time advantage.
Keanu Pinder (15 points, 13 boards) troubled his former side with his rebounding and athletic finishing in the second period.
The former Sixers forward gave Cairns the lead before responding to an 11-0 Adelaide splurge with a 7-0 run of his own to limit the deficit to 44-39 at halftime.
Import Tahjere McCall finally got going after the main break but otherwise the well ran completely dry for the Taipans.
They missed their last eight shot attempts of the period and at the other end couldn’t contain McCarron as the 36ers opened up a ten-point lead at the end of the third quarter.
Star American point guard Scott Machado (zero points, zero-of-12 from the field) endured the worst match of his stellar NBL career as Cairns crashed hard in the fourth term.
They offered no resistance whatsoever, missing 24 of 26 shots during a horror stretch to slump to their fifth successive defeat.
“That (being outscored 31-6 to finish the game) was definitely about us,” Taipans coach Adam Forde said.
“We’ve had that affliction all season where we’ve just dried up for spells.
“There are things we’re trying to work on.”
© AAP
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