Phoenix soar at home over Taipans

The South East Melbourne Phoenix were frustrated to let one slip in Sydney on Friday and hit back emphatically at home on Sunday beating a Cairns Taipans team 97-74 who got some troops back.

The Phoenix were back at John Cain Arena on Sunday afternoon for the last time until after the FIBA window and determined to hit back after losing to the Kings on Friday in a game they were in control of most of the way.

Cairns were without the suspended Rob Edwards, but did welcome back Taran Armstrong and Tanner Groves for the match up too along with unveiling Pedro Bradshaw's replacement, Deshon Taylor, but the Phoenix shot right out of the blocks.

Angus Glover landed three long balls early for a 15-4 start and while the Taipans did well to hang in there up to three quarter-time, South East Melbourne dominated in the final period on the way to the eventual 23-point victory.

Things fell apart in the final 10 minutes for Cairns to be outscored by 12 with Sam Waardenburg leaving after taking a heavy knock and with Jonah Antonio ejected after losing his cool with referee Ken Widgeon.

The win for the Phoenix is a third in four games with Josh King as coach and a fifth in eight games since releasing Mike Kelly as they improve to 5-7 on the season having hit 17/37 from three-point range along with 14 offensive rebounds for 18 second chance points.

On the back of his hot start, Glover put up a career-high in his 132nd NBL game with 22 points, three assists and two steals on 4/7 deep shooting with Matt Hurt adding 15 points and seven rebounds on 3/5 from downtown.

Nathan Sobey also had 14 points and nine assists, Jordan Hunter 14 points and six boards, and the returning Derrick Walton Jr eight points and three assists in 18 minutes.

King paid credit to his players for bouncing back quickly after Friday night's tough road loss to Sydney, saying he was particularly proud of their defensive efforts.

"That's something we really emphasise, getting after our opponents on that side of the ball," King said.

"It's simple to say we want to pressure and get after the other time but it's difficult to do.

"It takes a lot of energy and focus and concentration, and I'm really happy with the buy-in from these guys. I've only been here for about two weeks and they're all two-feet-in."

Waardenburg top-scored for Cairns with 16 points before leaving the court with his head knock with Kyrin Galloway putting up 14 points and three blocks, the returning Armstrong 11 points, seven rebounds and three assists, and Jackson Makoi nine points and seven assists.

The Taipans have now lost seven straight and committed 17 turnovers - many of them unforced.

"It was a bad game," Cairns coach Adam Forde said.

"We had average-looking offence and when we did execute and had wide-open looks, they didn't go in.

"We were sluggish to start each quarter ... but we had a pretty good week of preparation so it's kind of a disappointing performance by us."

The Snakes were boosted with Taran Armstrong back in the starting line-up and having Deshon Taylor and Tanner Groves to call upon along with being fresh having not played since last Saturday against Brisbane, but it was the Phoenix who started the better.

Coming off a tough Friday night loss in Sydney, Angus Glover and Nathan Sobey hit early threes and South East Melbourne were soon leading 15-4 when Glover knocked down two more from long range in a stunning start.

The Phoenix put up 24 points in the first six minutes with Tom Vodanovich also stepping on the floor to hit two threes and the home team ended up scoring 34 points in the opening period to be up 14 by quarter-time.

The Taipans had some work to do to stay in the contest and they did well in the second period to outscore the Phoenix 20 points to 15 to cut the South East Melbourne lead to 49-40 by the half-time interval.

Sam Waardenburg had 16 of those 40 points for Cairns at the half with three long balls but the Phoenix remained on top on 9/18 three-point shooting along with the 14 second chance points.

Cairns were staying in touch with South East Melbourne only stretching that advantage to 11 by three quarter-time but the game was blown right open to start the fourth quarter.

The Phoenix scored 12 of the first 14 points to open up a 21-point lead and if that wasn’t bad enough, Cairns lost Waardenburg after he took a heavy knock and then Jonah Antonio was ejected after two quick technical fouls.

From there South East Melbourne completed the job with the 23-point win to the delight of their 6384 home fans.

The Phoenix now have one more game before the FIBA window and that's on Friday night in Perth against the Wildcats while the Taipans will be hosting the New Zealand Breakers on Saturday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 97 (Glover 22, Hurt 15, Sobey 14, Hunter 14)

CAIRNS TAIPANS 74 (Waardenburg 16, Galloway 14, Armstrong 11)

BOX SCORE