Taipans beat Kings with miraculous fightback

The Cairns Taipans backed themselves to keep shooting, and it paid the ultimate dividends when they shook off a 26-point first-half deficit to dominate the second and beat the Sydney Kings 84-82 on Friday night.

It was a total domination from the Kings in the first half at the Cairns Convention Centre including going on a 16-0 run either side of quarter-time before leading 53-32 by half-time.

Cairns were shooting just 26 per cent from the field and 6/23 from three-point range, but one of those was from Jack McVeigh on the half-time buzzer to at least give them some momentum.

The Snakes then took charge in the third quarter outscoring the Kings 31 points to 14 including scoring the last seven points.

They then kept that rolling with the first 11 points of the last quarter but even then, the game had another twist with the Kings firing back and leading once more late after a pair of Torrey Craig three balls.

Keanu Pinder responded with two tough buckets and then survived a good look at the three late from Kendric Davis to secure the two-point win and improve to 8-6 on the season.

Cairns outscored Sydney 52-29 in the second half thanks to shooting 18/38 from the field and 10/19 from beyond the arc opposed to 12/41 overall from the Kings and 3/22 from the outside.

Pinder finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and three steals for the Taipans including 3/6 from deep.

McVeigh ended up with 16 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals, with Malique Lewis providing 11 points and three assists, Reyne Smith eight points and two crucial triples, Jonah Bolden six points, seven rebounds and two blocks, and Shaun Bruce five points and four assists against his old team.

The Kings are now 8-4 but remain in top spot with Davis ending up with 23 points, seven assists, three rebounds and two steals.

Torrey Craig added 22 points, seven rebounds and three blocks with 4/8 three-point shooting, with Matthew Dellavedova contributing 11 points and three assists in the starting five, and Xavier Cooks eight points, eight rebounds, four blocks and two assists.

Both teams were coming off Sunday victories ahead of a second meeting of the season and the Kings dominated the first quarter on the road.

Sydney scored the last 13 points of the opening term to lead 29-12 by quarter-time before turning that into a 16-0 run when Matthew Dellavedova opened the second frame with another three ball.

The Kings were then still in control leading 53-32 by half-time while shooting 56 from the field to 26, and 6/14 from beyond the arc to 6/23.

Torrey Craig was up to 14 points with Kendric Davis and Matthew Dellavedova combining for 19 points and seven assists as the starting back court.

Jack McVeigh did have 11 points and 2/3 three-point shooting for Cairns but the rest of his team only managed 21 points on 4/20 shooting from the outside.

Sydney might have looked in complete control at half-time, but the Taipans had other ideas and the game underwent a total transformation in the third quarter.

The Snakes outscored the Kings 31 points to 14 on the back of shooting 11/19 from the field and 6/10 from the outside to just 6/19 shooting from Sydney who went 1/10 from behind the arc.

As a result, Sydney's lead was right back to just four at three quarter-time before the Taipans rode that momentum to scoring the first 11 points of the final term to suddenly be leading by seven before the Kings finally scored after three and-a-half minutes thanks to Davis.

The Taipans then led by eight with a Jonah Bolden three ball but Sydney closed it back to two with three minutes on the clock, and then two huge late threes from Craig had them back up two.

Keanu Pinder responded with two tough buckets, though, for Cairns to have the home team leading by two with 11 seconds left and they held on to win by that margin when a triple in the dying seconds from Davis wouldn’t fall for the Kings.

It's the lone game of the round for the Taipans who don't play again until hosting the Perth Wildcats next Friday night while the Kings back up on Sunday hosting the New Zealand Breakers.

CAIRNS TAIPANS 84 – SYDNEY KINGS 82

Cairns Taipans
Keanu Pinder – 24 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals
Jack McVeigh – 16 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals
Malique Lewis – 11 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds
Reyne Smith – 8 points, 2 rebounds
Jonah Bolden – 6 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks

Sydney Kings
Kendric Davis – 23 points, 7 assists, 3 rebounds
Torrey Craig – 22 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocks
Matthew Dellavedova – 11 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds
Xavier Cooks – 8 points, 8 rebounds, 4 blocks
Andrew Carr – 6 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks