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AAP
Chris Pike

Taipans overcome sluggish starts to beat 36ers in NBL

Tahjere McCall was brilliant for the Cairns Taipans as they beat the Adelaide 36ers in overtime. (Darren England/AAP PHOTOS)

Despite a horror start to both halves, the Cairns Taipans have bounced back to beat the Adelaide 36ers 111-101 in overtime.

Saturday's home victory kept the Snakes' NBL top-six hopes alive.

The hosts found a way to win despite Bul Kuol and Lat Mayen fouling out while sending Adelaide to the line 46 times.

In addition, they were without Sam Waardenburg and Jonah Antonio, with Sam Mennenga playing just four minutes.

Adelaide, who arrived on the back of their best two wins of the season in front of record home crowds against Melbourne and Sydney, shot out of the blocks with the first 15 points.

While by halftime that advantage was down to three at 56-53, Adelaide scored 11 of the first 13 points of the third quarter with the lead growing to 16 - Cairns not having any answers for Adelaide big man Isaac Humphries.

The Sixers couldn't quite shut the door and the Taipans kept on coming, with the back court pairing of Tahjere McCall and Patrick Miller doing the damage.

The duo combined for all but seven of Cairns's 22 points in the final period as they drew level with little more than three minutes to play.

The scores were level again heading into the final minute when Taran Armstrong threw a picture-perfect alley-oop pass to Akoldah Gak, who was on his way to the best performance of his 42-game career with 21 points and 14 rebounds.

That would be the last score of regulation but Cairns had the momentum and scored the first eight points in overtime on the way to the 10-point win to improve to 10-12 in the season and stay in touch with the top six.

McCall was brilliant with 30 points, nine assists and eight rebounds with 3-of-5 long-range shooting, while Miller added 25 points and eight assists.

Josh Roberts had 12 points and four rebounds.

Taipans coach Adam Forde was especially delighted by the way his team locked in defensively to turn the tide.

"There was a stretch from the 7:30 mark where they didn't score another field goal until about the 1:30 mark in overtime, so (I'm) real happy with the guys defensively," he said.

"We did a great job navigating the ball screen ... the only thing that was keeping them in the game were the foul shots, which they had plentiful."

Adelaide have just one road win for the season to remain last at 7-14 despite a career-best scoring night from Humphries with 28 points and 11 rebounds.

Trey Kell III continued his strong form with 25 points, seven rebounds and three assists, and DJ Vasiljevic scored 19 points.

Sixers coach Scott Ninnis was rightfully frustrated to miss the chance for his first road win in his second stint in charge.

"That's as disappointing a loss as you get," he said.

"All credit to Cairns, they made the adjustments, upped the ante defensively and we had all sorts of trouble scoring most of that fourth quarter and overtime.

"It was bitterly disappointing."

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