"They don't quit": Taipans' losing streak over

Things looked like they were about as bad as they could get for the Cairns Taipans to end 2024.

They lost at home to close the year, by 24 points to the New Zealand Breakers, and it got worse with illness striking as they headed to Wollongong to take on the NBL-leading Illawarra Hawks.

That's what made what the Snakes did on Friday night all the more remarkable, as they snapped a 15-game losing streak to win in remarkable fashion.

They did it without perhaps their most important and consistent player, Sam Waardenburg, while fellow big man Tanner Groves fought through illness too across his 24 minutes' court-time.

Cairns had battled hard in the first half, but were still 11 points down, before producing what could have been the best quarter from any team all season, with 40 points in the third quarter.

The Snakes still found themselves four points down with 20 seconds to go. It looked like a valiant effort would again leave them short and they'd slump to the 16th consecutive loss.

The Taipans weren’t going to give up though. They were able to force the Hawks into two careless passes in the last five seconds, which first led to a Rob Edwards tying three-pointer and then to the winning free-throws from Taran Armstrong.

Coach Adam Forde said it was the ultimate reward for never giving up.

"I want the boys to enjoy this one. I told them that if they miss the bus, I'll meet them in Cairns whenever they get back during the week," Forde said.

"It's a bit of a different feeling amongst the group and win or lose, and there's been a lot of losing, every week has been a process and the guys don't miss anything and they don't quit.

"No one wants out of practice, the assistant coaches still lock into the scout and they do a real good job of maintaining the standard, because it's easy to wonder why you keep bothering doing all those little things when you keep losing.

"They keep the standard which keeps everyone else accountable and I want the boys to go and let their hair down."

The starting Cairns backcourt of Armstrong and Edwards needed to lift, especially with Groves under the weather and Waardenburg out significantly weakening their stocks up front.

Armstrong and Edwards had combined to shoot 6/42 from the field and 2/21 from three with 11 turnovers over the previous two losses to Melbourne and New Zealand, where they scored just 66 and 68 points as a team.

Both stepped up mightily in the win over the Hawks with 28 points apiece including combining for the match-winning last seven points in the final 12 seconds.

Forde never doubted his stars.

"Those two guys are ultimate professionals and knowing what they contribute to their development and practice during the week, I knew they would continue to chip away to keep getting better," Forde said.

"But you're talking about two guys who have extreme confidence in their ability, so it was never in question that this would be the trend going forward. I knew they would have a bounce back game and we needed it without Waardenburg. We needed everyone to step up and they did."