Bullets catch fire for first home win of NBL26

Getting to stay at home for a week seemed to agree with the Brisbane Bullets as they produced their most complete performance of NBL26 and won for the first time at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre beating the Cairns Taipans 113-85.

The Bullets were playing their second of three straight home matches on Thursday night and both teams were playing well offensively in the first half, but it was the last 10 points of the opening half that saw Brisbane take control.

After scores were tied at 47-47 late in the second quarter, the Bullets outscored the Taipans the rest of the way 66 points to 38 for the 28-point victory to improve to 4-6 on the season and to win in front of the home fans for the first time of NBL26.

There was plenty to like at the offensive end with what the Bullets did for their highest-scoring first half and overall game of NBL26 with the 113 points on shooting 55 per cent from the floor with 13/33 from deep, 18/22 at the foul line and having 21 assists to just eight turnovers.

The contributions were well spread from the Bullets too with seven players scoring at least eight points, and some big plus-minus numbers including Tyrell Harrison a +34, Tristan Devers +22, and Casey Prather, Jaylen Adams and debutant Dakota Mathias were all +17.

Harrison finished the night with 21 points, eight rebounds and two blocks on 9/13 shooting in a dominant performance while Prather ended up with 21 points, 10 boards, three assists and two steals.

Adams was impressive scoring and distributing for 20 points and seven assists while Taine Murray ended up with 16 points on 6/8 field goal shooting, Alex Ducas 13 points and three assists, and Devers eight points, three assists, two rebounds and two steals.

It was an encouraging first showing from newly arrived import, Mathias, as well who put up 11 points, four rebounds and two assists while going 3/10 from downtown in his 22:32 of court time.

The returning Jack McVeigh top-scored for Cairns with 23 points to go with six assists and five rebounds with Kyrin Galloway adding 12 points, and Andrew Andrews 11 points and 10 assists.

The Bullets opened up an early 6-2 advantage including five of those points coming from Taine Murray and it would prove to be a high-scoring opening term from both teams.

Alex Ducas, new signing Dakota Mathias and Tristan Devers all made three-pointers as well in the opening period for the Bullets, but the Taipans went into quarter-time leading 27-25.

Things remained tight for a lot of the second quarter until the Bullets blew things open by scoring the last 10 points of the half with that including an and-one from Jaylen Adams before he also hit from beyond the arc.

That saw the Bullets go into the half-time break leading 57-47 in their best first half of NBL26 so far and it didn’t take long into the second half for the home team to build on that advantage.

Ducas and Devers knocked down three-pointers on consecutive possessions for the lead to grow to 13 and that became 16 when Mathias landed his second on debut, and 17 with a three-point play from Tyrell Harrison.

That lead was out to 22 by three quarter-time in favour of the Bullets with the home team then opening up the final stanza with three balls to Murray, Ducas and Adams.

Brisbane went on another 11-0 run later in the quarter with the lead getting out to 26, and it became 30 thanks to a three-point play to Cal Dalton, and a third long bomb of the night from Mathias before settling at 28.

The Bullets now remain at home to play host to the Sydney Kings back at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Saturday night.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2025/26

BRISBANE BULLETS 113 (Prather 21, Harrison 21, Adams 20)

CAIRNS TAIPANS 85 (McVeigh 23, Galloway 12, Andrews 11)

BOX SCORE