
Anonymous
Years ago
Cairns vs Illawarra - Pre Season games
Cairns looked sharp tonight, winning 101-91. However no penney for hawks yet. Lisch was his usual best
Anonymous
Years ago
Cairns looked sharp tonight, winning 101-91. However no penney for hawks yet. Lisch was his usual best
The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans opened the 2015 pre-season with a tense 101-91 win over the Wollongong Hawks in Cairns on Friday night.
The pre-season encounter added another fiery chapter in the two sides' history, four players receiving either technical or unsportsmanlike fouls. Tyson Demos was marched from the court in the game’s final stages.
The Taipans welcomed recruits Mark Worthington and Markel Starks, but it was some Snakes regulars that led the charge.
Cameron Tragardh top-scored for the game with 25, while Cameron Gliddon had 19 from seven of eight shooting.
"Trig (Tragardh) did his thing, Alex (Loughton) did his. We had five guys in double digits, Damo (Damon Heuir) with eight, Wortho (Worthington) with seven. So when we get contributions like that it’s pretty good," said Taipans coach Aaron Fearne.
For the vistors, Kevin Lisch proved how valuable a recruit he’ll be with twenty points, Tim Coenraad (18) was the next best for an Illawarra side without Kirk Penny.
In a surprise move Shaun Bruce started the game at point guard, while Markel Starks scored four points in his first game, fouling out in less than eleven minutes.
“He needs to show better discipline and get an understanding of our league of what he can and can’t do. But when he was out there I thought he was really good,” said Coach Fearne on Starks’ debut.
The Taipans’ other debutant, Mark Worthington, got his career in orange off to the ideal start, scoring the first points of the game.
The sides exchanged baskets in the opening term as neither threatened to break away, the Taipans managing to secure a four-point lead at the change.
Cairns returned better from the break, opening up a ten-point buffer before Coenraad stemmed the flow.
Tragardh did his bit to maintain the lead with twelve first-half points, but he couldn’t prevent Illawarra from finding twenty-two points in a five-minute burst.
Cody Ellis nailed a three to draw the margin to three, and when the big man hit another treble on the half-time buzzer, the Hawks had wrestled the game back, to lead by five.
Gliddon struck the first blow of the third term with a three, and the action only intensified from there.
The Taipans skipper got wrapped up in a tussle with Hawks captain Oscar Foreman, with both players receiving technical fouls.
Gliddon’s second three of the term happened in the quarter’s finals second, and was followed by yet another mid-court battle.
Demos and Tragardh both were whistled for unsportsmanlike penalties, as the Snakes took a twelve-point advantage into the final term.
“I thought there was a little bit of inconsistency there which obviously got our crowd fired up and the players fired up, but you know we are looking to improve next game,” said Fearne of the controversial third term, that left both coaches visibly frustrated.
Coenraad and Lisch continued to toil away in the final term, but Cairns wouldn’t be denied in their first game of the pre-season, the crowd finding another voice as Bruce hit a final three to ice the ten-point win.
While Fearne was pleased with his sides first hit-out of the year, he knows they have plenty of improvement left.
“We fouled too much, in patches we were really good defensively then in patches we were soft, but that’s to be expected at this stage,” he said.
The sides return to Cairns Basketball this Sunday for a 1.00pm rematch. Tickets available at the gate from 11.00am.
Cairns Taipans 101 (Tragardh 25, Gliddon 19, Loughton 13)
Illawarra Hawks 91 (Lisch 20, Coenraad 18, Ellis 16)
greybuoy
Years ago
How bad was Torrey Craig!?
That boy is going to need his head in the right place soon.
Who'da thought 10 weeks in the NZ big league could be so dangerous?
greybuoy - were you at the game or just looking at stats mate?
I wasn't being a smartass mate just wanted to know if your comments on Starks were from actually seeing him or not?
Looks like Torrey had a pretty decent game today
http://www.fibalivestats.com/matches/51197/13/82/00/431xiBE4r3Dg/?utm_content=buffer3df60&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Train
Years ago
Torrent Craig just made greybouy gag on his own words. 20pts 15 reb 3 Steals
greybuoy
Years ago
Torrey made me proud, that's what.
Just a few words and he's back in the game.
Makes you wonder.
greybuoy
Years ago
Good to see pre-season games played in earnest.
Can Penny put Illawarra past Cairns? Can he defend well enough to justify his expected minutes?
Demos struggled to be effective either end either game. Ditto for Oscar. I'll call that 3 weak defensive contributors for Illawarra this season when they play Cairns.
Despite the cost of the Cairns foul count today, all 10 Taipans will be accountable through the season. Worthington injects a welcome 'mongrel' element, Starks is a constant defender, and even Trigg comits to the limit of his ability.
Head to head I'm predicting Cairns over Hawks this season.
GordonG
Years ago
Don't forget when talking up Penny that Taipans played without Stevie Weigh, who started all games last season.
Markel was way better today, TC was all over everyone and everything. Going to be a fine juggling act as to who plays where and how much, but we've got a couple of reasonably smart coaches to sort it out ;)
Best play of the day was the inbound from the sideline with 0.4 on the clock - straight to Matt Burston with a reverse layup without even being able to look for the bucket, 2 points and the crowd (pretty much a full house) went nuts
With all due respect Weigh is not comparable to Penney.
CT
Years ago
Can anyone confirm why Stephen Weigh didn't play today? It looked like he was spending most of the game giving feedback to Markel. And for that matter, where was Bevo?
TC looked great. Massive improvement in confidence on last season. And Wortho could be the new Grabau.
fstos
Years ago
Hawks with no Penney, no Bevo and in the Snakes back yard. Weigh playing just means less of Craig (not sure that is a god thing).
Not sure how this equates to being able to predict any head to head results. Pre season is pre season. Ben Allen and Brad Hill have been pre season superstars in the past.
GordonG
Years ago
Weigh with a minor hamstring injury, will be ready for our next hitout.
And as FSTOS says, it's pre-season. All sorts of strange combinations from the Taipans. DP playing Friday night, Burston off the bench Sunday... All it means is we played two games on the weekend and got home in both of them.
snooch
Years ago
With all due respect Weigh is not comparable to Penney.
Not. Even. Close.
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