Why winning "dogfight" feels like Taipans' turning point

In their past two games, the Cairns Taipans have been right in the mix through the first three quarters, before fading in the fourth period against South East Melbourne and Illawarra.

That wasn't the case in Wednesday's fixture against Melbourne United in Bendigo, with the Snakes holding their nerve to win by one point (83-82).

In fact, behind 20 points from Jack McVeigh and Sam Waardenburg, the Taipans actually won the second half (50-47), which highlights the team's growth, according to coach Adam Forde.

"The last two games have been the fade outs, where we led both South East Melbourne and Illawarra at half-time. On both occasions, it was just a two point game at three quarter time, before we ended up getting blown out by double-digits," Forde said in Wednesday's post game press conference.

"But we reviewed those games on film and talked about it as a group, with the attention to detail being quite targeted [at those growth areas].

"Then the leadership down the stretch, by players like Drew (Andrew Andrews), was massive, getting the ball where it needed to go.

"As crazy as it sounds, if we didn't have those past fade outs, there's a real possibility we don't win today. But the resolve of this group, knowing what the worst case scenario was, [was amazing], as we'd recently experienced what can happen when things go bad.

"We knuckled down, focused, tried to not get too rattled with what was going on the game and played every possession for what it was, which is why I think [we got home tonight]."

Echoing his coach's thoughts was forward Kyrin Galloway, whose 13 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks and 1 assist were also instrumental in the Taipans' sixth win of the Hungry Jack's NBL26 season.

"After losing those games the way we did, it feels even better to finally win a dogfight like that," Galloway said.

"Our fight in all those games have been there, it's just we've lacked execution and had some mental lapses [down the stretch].

"Today we certainly took a step in the right direction, and we will just grow from here."

The Taipans will host Brisbane, who they just leapfrogged out of 10th spot, on Saturday from 5.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.