Tigers trounce Taipans

Melbourne has crushed Cairns 101-77 at the Cairns Convention Centre on Friday night to make it 24 wins from 28 matches for the Tigers against the Taipans in ten years of battle.

The big three led the way for the Tigers who lead from start to finish with Ebi Ere (24 points), Rod Grizzard (19) and Chris Anstey the most dominant players on court.

Larry Abney had his best match for the season for Cairns with 19 points but he lacked support with only Martin Cattalini and Dave Thomas joining him in double figures.

The Tigers shot out of the blocks scoring the first eight points and it took the hosts three and a half minutes to post their first points when Abney produced a big dunk. With their size inside the visitors dominated the paint and picked up plenty of second chance points on the back of eight first quarter offensive boards.

A 14-4 finish to the term saw the Tigers take a comfortable 31-16 lead into the first break.

Melbourne continued on its merry way in the second term extending the lead to 17 before Anstey picked up his fourth personal foul with five minutes to play. The ensuing tech foul which was given to the Tigers bench despite all the hostility coming from the big centre gave the Snakes a sniff.

With the imposing presence of Anstey sitting on the bench for the rest of the term the Taipans outscored the Tigers 16-7 to close the gap at the half to eight points, 46-38.

A Stephen Black three-pointer to open the third term got the home side to within five points. But the flicker of hope was quickly extinguished as Melbourne went on a 20-7 run to take a dominant 66-48 lead with four to play in the quarter.

Even when Anstey was benched when he picked up his fifth foul it was hard work for the Taipans who could only close the gap to 16, 69-53 at the final break.

The lead blew out to 23 points in the final term before Cairns went on an 8-0 run to bring it back to 15.

However, it didn't last long as the visitors continued their domination to win by 24 points.

The win sees the Tigers take their season record to 3-1 and return to Melbourne to host the Wildcats on Wednesday night, while the Taipans (2-2) head over the ditch to take on the in-form Breakers on Thursday.

Scorecard
Melbourne Tigers 101 (Ere 24, Grizzard 19, Stephen Hoare 15)
Cairns Taipans 77 (Abney 19, Cattalini 14, Thomas 11)
@ Cairns Convention Centre, 3/10/2008, Crowd: 3969