Hot shooting from distance in the first quarter, and the at-times dominant inside presence of Nathan Jawai were keys to the Cairns Taipans 89-84 victory over the Brisbane Bullets in Brisbane on Saturday night.
Cairns hit five three pointers in the first period to open up a six-point lead to start the second stanza, and finished with seven for the half at a rate of 58.3 percent, closing the half ahead 48-38.
Cairns centre Jawai was a constant headache for Brisbane coach Andrej Lemanis, scoring 11 first half points and keeping the Brisbane coach thinking as he continued to draw fouls on Brisbane's big men.
Jawai would finish the match with 16 points including a game-sealing three-point play with under two minutes to play when fouled by Cameron Bairstow
Bairstow was solid in the first half for the Bullets coming off the bench to lead Brisbane with eight points as his side struggled to sink the long ball.
Lemanis would have been concerned about his team's poor ball control in the first half with the Bullets committing 11 turnovers to Cairns' six prior to the main break.
"I thought we came out well, started with good energy and a good mindset, but I thought we added to our own demise at points there, turnovers was certainly one of them," he said.
"We hung in there and gave ourselves an opportunity, but again, we missed some easy shots, we got it back to one, gave up an offensive rebound, which led to a kick out and a tough three ball, but after that we had some opportunities and we missed some opportunities, but that's the way it goes."
After the game, Lemanis lamented the amount of time the Taipans were able to spend at the free-throw line.
"When you look at the stats, the obvious one - and I'm not sure why it is - they had 34 foul shots to our 18, and if you look at everything else we outshoot them from a percentage perspective, we out-rebound them, turnovers is an issue and the number of times they shoot foul shots is an issue," he said.
Cairns would extend their lead to 20 points midway through the third quarter with the scores at 64-44 only for the Bullets to crank up their defensive intensity and come storming back into match to trail by just nine 69-60 going into the final break.
The Bullets comeback was led by Torrey Craig, who hit a trio of three pointers in the third quarter, making up for a first half in which he uncharacteristically turned the ball over four times.
Former Taipan Craig, who is having an outstanding season for the Bullets and must be among contenders for the most valuable player award at season's end, said he was just focused on playing well for his new team.
"I'm just trying to do all I can for us to win basketball games, the ultimate goal is to win and try to stay in the hunt for things toward the end of the season so that's just my main focus, I really don't care about the MVP, I just want to win," he said.
Brisbane would come within two points with four minutes to play only for Cairns import Travis Trice to step up in the games dying minutes with a number of key plays including a massive three pointer to stem the Bullets' momentum.
Trice finished the match with 24 points to go with four rebounds and four assists.
Craig was again Brisbane's best, finishing with 24 points, pacing teammate Bairstow with 17.
The Bullets who defeated Perth 90-75 in Perth on Thursday, before losing to Cairns, now sit equal second with a record of seven wins and six losses, and Lemanis said his team would continue to trust their process in what is an incredibly tight competition.
"It's a close league, everybody's good, everybody runs deep, everybody is talented, so for us it is as it has always been, I think if you get lost in the ladders and the wins and losses, you lose focus on what's actually important and that's process, we just need to keep getting a little bit better everyday," he said.
