Taipans continue surge to begin 2025

The Cairns Taipans arrived with the shackles released and they continued their vastly improved form to open 2025 with 62 points in the first half with 22 of those from Rob Edwards to set up 111-80 win over the Brisbane Bullets.

The Snakes' season looked like it could be heading in a disastrous direction when losing at home to the New Zealand Breakers on New Year's Eve. But they have played with great freedom and passion since which continued on Friday at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.

The Bullets were fighting to stay in the top six race but were playing a third game in six days and were still without Tyrell Harrison, Rocco Zikarsky and Deng Adel.

The Taipans beat the Illawarra Hawks in Wollongong to start 2025 before encouraging showings despite narrow losses to the Sydney Kings and South East Melbourne Phoenix.

Cairns were also hunting a first Sunshine Stoush win of NBL25 against their Queensland rivals and produced a blistering first half to lead 62-45.

Edwards put up 22 points on 6/7 three-point shooting and as a team the Snakes shot 63 per cent, nailed 10/14 from deep and led by 17 even with Brisbane still going at 50 per cent themselves.

Cairns were still leading by 17 at three quarter-time and rolled to the 31-point win with the 29-point fourth quarter enough to give them the Summer Shootout lead while going 59 per cent from the field and 16/29 from downtown.

Edwards finished with 35 points and three assists on 7/11 three-point shooting while Taran Armstrong had another impressive showing with 19 points, six rebounds and four assists.

Tanner Groves ended up with 17 points and eight rebounds with Kyle Adnam chiming in with 14 points and six assists.

"Sometimes we treat defence like a well-organised pick-up game," Cairns coach Adam Forde said.

"You can manage and navigate that, and the boys responded. Obviously we're not playing for a play-in position, but we are playing for pride."

It's a third straight loss for the Bullets and a sixth in the last seven as they slip to 10-14. They did pull down 20 offensive rebounds but couldn’t capitalise and shot 36 per cent as a team.

Casey Prather top-scored with another 22 points and nine rebounds with Josh Bannan adding 16 points and 12 boards, Keandre Cook 13 points and six rebounds, and Josh Adams 10 points, three boards and three assists.

"I've felt a couple of times in these last few games it's physically gotten that hard," Bullets coach Justin Schueller said.

"That's the challenge I've got right now: how do we turn this around quickly?"

The Snakes arrived in Brisbane playing better basketball to start 2025 and had a nothing to lose attitude, and used that to their advantage to open up a 14-5 lead with Rob Edwards and Pedro Bradshaw hitting early three-pointers.

While Brisbane did manage to get some scoring going with 19 points over the next few minutes including triples to Tohi Smith-Milner and Casey Prather, up the other end the Snakes were doing virtually as they pleased.

Taran Armstrong dropped a triple on the buzzer of quarter-time to give the Taipans the 31-24 lead with Edwards already putting up 13 points.

The Snakes were feeling good and went on another 9-1 early in the second term to push the advantage out to double-figures.

Another six straight points on the one possession thanks to an unsportsmanlike with Josh Adams fouling Bradshaw saw the Taipans push out to a 16-point edge.

Cairns then went into the main break leading 62-45 thanks to Edwards hitting a three right on the half-time buzzer to go into the locker room with 22 points to his name with Tanner Groves adding 15.

Brisbane were slowly working back into the contest in the first half of the third quarter but then it was Kyle Adnam who sparked Cairns with eight quick points including two triples to push the lead out to 16.

The Taipans were still on top by 17 at three quarter-time before they locked away the result with Armstrong scoring the first five points of the fourth term.

The Snakes were then able to rack up the points late with a dunk from Kyrin Galloway and three from Edwards seeing them end up on 111 points to take the Summer Shootout lead.

The hectic schedule for the Bullets continues as they head to Wollongong to play the Illawarra Hawks on Monday night while before that, the Taipans host the Adelaide 36ers on Sunday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

BRISBANE BULLETS 80 (Prather 22, Bannan 16, Cook 13)

CAIRNS TAIPANS 111 (Edwards 35, Armstrong 19, Groves 17)

BOX SCORE