Forde praises "mucked about" Mayen

Cairns and Illawarra played out another classic encounter on Thursday night. Two of the last three games the Taipans and Hawks have contested have ended in a buzzer-beater for the win, while only one of their last six clashes has been decided by more than seven points.

Lat Mayen became the unlikely hero for the Taipans after an offensive rebound from a missed Patrick Miller layup gave him a three-point attempt to win the game.

The victory has seen the Taipans leapfrog the Hawks into sixth place on the NBL ladder – although each team still has a game to play in Round 16, and head coach Adam Forde praised Mayen’s conduct through the season so far.

“My brother always says ‘act like you’ve been there before’. Trust me, I did not take that advice. I was on the court, I was ecstatic and the boys were juiced,” Forde said post-game.

"It was one of those moments where the moment he shot it I was like ‘that’s going in’, it never looked like missing.

“He’s been having a great year and through circumstance he’s been the guy who I’ve mucked about it a bit in terms of rotations because we ride the momentum of guys like Bobi, Taran and Jonah in different stages.

“Through injury it becomes ‘roll out and play him, what’s the worst that can happen?'. [I’m] happy for Lat, he’s absolutely crushing it.

“It’s been a really good week, I challenged a few guys and there’s been this little shift in how we go about our day to day, which I think is for the betterment of competition. I don’t want to give the old cliché lines like ‘pressure creates diamonds’ and stuff like that, but that’s really what we went for.

“For us to be able to trust whoever we put on the floor and do their part in it, outstanding”

Ex-Hawk Akoldah Gak returned to his former club as a member of Cairns’ starting five, and Forde praised the 21-year-old’s ability to keep the Taipans in the game during a difficult shooting run in the first quarter.

Illawarra entered the first break with a four-point lead in what was the Taipans’ lowest scoring term of the game, however Gak offered a shining light with nine rebounds in a quarter where Cairns’ shot just wouldn’t fall.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BANGGGG ?<br><br>What a sequence ?<br><br>Lat Mayen for the win ? <a href="https://t.co/dqPAUlSAQT">pic.twitter.com/dqPAUlSAQT</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1747928803916316724?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 18, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Taipans reset themselves to score over 20 points in each of the remaining quarters of the game, and Forde praised his side’s desire to clean the glass and attack offensive rebounds in the win.

“AK had nine rebounds in the first quarter, and we would have been dead in the water. We had good looks, and I said to the guys in the timeout the shots we were taking were good looks … what was keeping us alive was the fact we had AK cleaning up the rebounds,” Forde said.

“What was huge was Josh (Roberts) got two massive o-boards and kicked it out to Bul for a three-pointer – he did it twice.

“You can really break the momentum of a team if you can get some second-chance points, and everyone was in on that. Taran had a putback – it’s great when your guards are getting putbacks too – effort and energy, that’s all we can ask for.

“We’ve always had these games regardless of where Cairns and Illawarra have been in ladder positions. I know in my first year at Cairns when Goorj was here it was battles, and then the flip last year, we won one by a missed buzzer-beater by Harvey.

“I don’t know if it’s about small market clubs that just like getting after each other but it was cool because the fans turned out and even their support for us and AK made it a really cool atmosphere. I enjoy coming to Illawarra, I enjoy competing against them and I look forward to another one or two-point margin to close out the game.

“The good thing is we don’t have to play them anymore unless we play them in the Play-In so my stress levels will come down, hopefully, by then.”

Cairns will next face Brisbane on Sunday at 4pm AEDT. The game will be shown live and free on Kayo Freebies | 10 Peach and 10 Play.