Courageous Bullets fall to Taipans in the North

The Brisbane Bullets got out to a hot start, but the Cairns Taipans overcame the visiting side 85-76 in Cairns to open Indigenous Round.

It was the second Sunshine Stoush of NBL23 on Wednesday night at the Cairns Convention Centre. It was the Taipans who took the win,  but there were encouraging signs for the Bullets under Interim Head Coach Greg Vanderjagt.

The Bullets got out to a strong start, with the first five points of the game courtesy of DJ Mitchell and Aron Baynes.

Shannon Scott got the Taipans on the board with a triple, but Baynes had his best start to a game in the NBL with the next three buckets as the Bullets kept feeding him inside and he put his team on top 11-3.

Bul Kuol shot Cairns back into the contest with consecutive three-pointers. Harry Froling hit one of his own, then the Taipans built some momentum with the next seven points and led the Bullets 21-18 at quarter time despite the six turnovers.

The Bullets were able to stem the flow of Cairns attack, but were unable to consistently score, as the home side built a nine-point lead. In his first game for Brisbane, Andrew White III opened his NBL account with a three. It was the taipans who took a 40-30 lead int half time.

White's second three of his debut appearance kept Brisbane close, but by three quarter-time Cairns maintained an eight-point advantage.

The Taipans pushed the lead out to 15 with four minutes to play. But the Bullets kept fighting. A four-point play from Nathan Sobey put life back in the contest as Brisbane drew the deficit back to six. However the Taipans going on to win by nine.

For the Bullets, Vanderjagt couldn’t fault the fight and efforts of his group after what they've been through.

"I'm proud of the group," he said. 

"I think they responded to the challenge that was put in front of them. We didn't have a great preparation, let's be honest, but their effort and intent I can't question. I think they played their backsides off all night, they played for each other, they competed for each other and did all the right things. 

"We go 8/15 from the line and 8/27 from the three, I don’t think this team does that again too many times this season. Some shots didn’t go our way and we had some mental errors down the stretch and at points in the game that hurt us so there's little things that take their toll over the course of the game. 

"We have to be better with those and sometimes we just broke out of stuff, and we're still a new group who hasn’t been whole yet with a new import coming in this week. He just got off the flight at 2pm on Monday and hasn’t practiced yet so I'm proud of what he did."

Just as Brisbane gained the services of new import Andrew White III, Tyler Johnson was ruled out just before the game to join Tanner Krebs and Tyrell Harrison sidelined. However, White showed good signs in his NBL debut with a perfect 3/3 three-point shooting for nine points in 18 and-a-half minutes.

Baynes ended up top-scoring for the Bullets with 17 points while Nathan Sobey fought through a tough shooting night and found a way to make a positive impact on the game with 13 points, seven assists, six rebounds and five steals.

Gorjok Gak was impressive again with 10 points and 11 rebounds and DJ Mitchell added nine points and seven boards.

Next up, the Bullets battle the 36ers in Adelaide on Saturday night.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 11

CAIRNS TAIPANS 85 (Kuol 23, Hogg 15, McCall 13)

BRISBANE BULLETS 76 (Baynes 17, Sobey 13, Gak 10)

BOX SCORE