NBL25 Round 3: Armstrong dominates as Taipans beat the JackJumpers, 36ers break through
Taipans star Taran Armstrong made a successful return from injury, leading Cairns to a well-earned victory against the reigning champion Tasmania JackJumpers.
The Cairns Taipans have blown away the reigning champions to break a five -game losing streak to the Tasmanian JackJumpers, and sent a warning to the rest of the NBL that they cannot be overlooked as a genuine threat this season..
In Friday night’s blockbuster at the Cairns Convention Centre, the Taipans showed why they are a serious threat in the 2024/25 season with a 90-78 win over the JackJumpers.
Taran Armstong made a successful return from injury, putting up a career-best 20 points in the 90-78 win against the JackJumpers, with five assists and four rebounds making for a big night in the tropics.
Import guard Rob Edwards also starred, finishing with 16 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal and a block in an impressive all-round performance. Giving plenty for the home crowd to cheer about was the Taipans skipper Taran Armstrong (20 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds) and Rob Edwards (16 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists).
Taipans coach Adam Forde said he found it hard to take Armstrong out of the game. hard to pull Armstrong off.
“I am not the medical’s favourite person at the moment because we were supposed to cap him (Armstrong) at 20 (minutes),” Forde said.
“But it is kind of hard not to leave him out there when he is plus- 22.
“There is a level of stability and even at the end where it started to get a little bit away from us, you chuck Kyle in there and it was just these two level heads that just had this real calming influence to finish out the game.
“This is what we wanted early on, it’s good to see.
“We are three games in, no one is winning anything in October but we can see infancy stage to where we are at and the direction we are going in.”
The Taipans ledwere up by as much as 24 points midway through the third quarter, but the defending champion JackJumpers found themselves and lifted in the back end of the second half to close the score to within two buckets.
While they ultimately fell short, JackJumpers coach Scott Roth said it was pleasing to know his side can chase down any lead.
“Congratulations to them, they just played harder for longer than we did,” Roth said.
“(They) put us on the back foot and credit to them and the aggression to go play and I love the fight of our guys to get back to within four with a few minutes to go.
“And we’ll just build off of that, it is quite difficult to win on the road in the NBL and in general.
“So we just have to do better in some areas, we probably shot too many threes.”
It was an ideal start to round 3 for the Taipans, who finished strongly to claim a 12-point victory, and will face the red hot Melbourne United in Melbourne on Sunday. But it was the Taipans, with the crowd lifting them to hold on and fight back late in the fourth quarter to claim the 12 point victory.
The win starts off the Taipans weekend perfectly as they now travel to Melbourne to take on the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Sunday.
ARMSTRONG, TOO STRONG
Cairns point guard Taran Armstrong showed no signs of the calf strain which kept him out of the opening two matches.
Armstrong started his first game of the season and played a total of 14 minutes of the first half.
His 14 first-half minutes proved the calf was right, but it was a second-quarter dunk which almost burst a hole in the roof of the Cairns Convention Centre.
Armstrong made the most of his minutes in the second half, finishing with 20 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds in 29 minutes.
It is the Tasmanian product’s best return in an NBL game, beating his previous best of 18 points - which also came against the JackJumpers - last season.
PUSH AND SHOVE
JackJumpers star Jordon Crawford let his frustration out late in the fourth quarter when putting on a block against Taipans guard Rob Edwards.
Edwards pushed through, which didn’t sit well with Crawford and led to a bit of push and shove as players came in to break it up.
It didn’t end there, with Edwards making sure he got the crowd involved, who gave plenty to the Tasmanian bench as he went to the foul line minutes later.
SHARING THE LOVE
Rob Edwards was already a well-received by the Orange Army, but he proved he’s a crowd favourite after he dominated with 31 points in his first game in Cairns.
Cairns had eight different scorers in their first game at the Snakepit in NBL25, with five players scoring double figures.
Taran Armstrong led the way with 20 points, Edwards had 16 points, while Kyrin Galloway (14 points), Sam Waardenburg (12 points) and Pedro Bradshaw also hit double digits.
BROTHERLY LOVE IN FNQ
It’s been a long time coming, but the Gak brothers have faced off for the first time in the Tropical city.
Younger brother Akoldah Gak joined the Taipans and grew into a key member of the rotation, but they didn’t cross paths in NBL24 despite Gorjok Gak playing 17 games himself.
Gorjok Gak made his first appearance for the JackJumpers against the Taipans, and featured in several plays against each other despite being limited to just over four minutes (AK Gak played over eight).
HOT AND COLD DOYLE
JackJumpers guard Milton Doyle had an explosive first half and was the shining light in an otherwise dismal half for the reigning premiers.
But it was the complete opposite in the second half as he struggled from any type of range.
Doyle had 15 at the main break but managed just four points in the second half to go along with his 2 assists and 3 rebounds.
Ice, DJ, lead 36ers in breakthrough
by Jason Phelan
That’s more like it, Adelaide!
The fired-up 36ers bounced back from an 0-2 start to storm to their first win under new coach Mike Wells, Isaac Humphries and DJ Vasiljevic starring in a commanding win that consigned South East Melbourne to an 0-4 record.
Playing in front of their adoring fans at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre for the first time in NBL25, the Sixers led from start to finish on Thursday night, riding a much-improved defensive performance to a 10-point result to make it six wins in a row at home.
Vasiljevic had scored 20 or more points in his past seven games, the longest such streak in the NBL, and the skipper made it eight in a row with his 22 points, while Humphries snapped out of an indifferent start to the season to finish with 22 as well.
The Phoenix trailed by as much as 20 points and was 13 down heading into the final term, import Matt Hurt playing a lone hand on offence with a game-high 32 points.
The visitors rallied to make it a nine-point game with five minutes remaining, but the steely Sixers held their nerve.
ICE HEATS UP
Humphries managed just five points from 10 attempts from the floor across his first two games, but the star centre shook off his early-season lethargy in a stirring opening blitz by the home side.
Vasiljevic made sure to find his teammate early and Ice responded with six points in the first five minutes of the game.
Adelaide led by nine points at the first break, with the ice-cold visitors shooting at just 6-from-20 from the floor and 1-from-9 from three-point land in the first term.
Humphries had a game-high 12 points on 5-from-6 shooting four minutes into the second term as the red-hot Sixers stormed to a 45-25 lead.
“We’ve had a weird start (to the season) and I’ve had a very weird start,” Humphries told ESPN at half-time.
“There’s been a few moving pieces within the team with personnel and stuff like that we’ve had to figure out … every day we’re getting better at it.”
THE MONTREZL EFFECT
Wells saw enough from Montrezl Harrell in the first two games to put the energetic American into the starting line-up and he didn’t disappoint.
With his side’s defensive efforts under the microscope, Harrell set the tone with a game-high seven rebounds in the first half, six of those on the defensive end, with one monster block and he was unlucky to be whistled on another shot he sent packing.
Harrell’s first points came as time ran out in the first quarter, the imposing big man gathering a missed shot and elevating high above the rim to throw down a commanding dunk that had the home fans in full voice.
Such was the energy he put into the jam, Harrell fell almost flat on his back but was still pumping up the crowd as he lay on the floor.
Harell was fired up after his second block in the third quarter, but earned himself a tech foul for his shove on Tom Vodanovich after the Phoenix big man fouled Kendric Davis.
CONDUCIVE?
Import Kendric Davis was in the news during the week after he took umbrage to a journalist opining on social media as to whether his play was conducive to winning in the NBL.
“I’m (going to) make sure we revisit this tweet in a few months,” Davis fired back.
The American didn’t need to wait that long, pouring in 21 points, with four steals and handing off seven assists in an impressive display.
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