IN A TOP against bottom clash, Adelaide 36ers were always tipped to get the job done against Cairns Taipans on Christmas Eve, especially when the latter’s marquee player Jack McVeigh could not get going. In the end, McVeigh was limited to just nine points (4/14 from the field and 1/8 from three-point range) as the 36ers won each of the four quarters and secured the 93-73 win.

Adelaide 36ers (93) def. Cairns Taipans (73)

When McVeigh is at his best and is on fire, then Cairns are able to compete with just about anyone. In fact in these two teams’ last matchup, Cairns stayed in the game all through until losing in overtime 105-101. McVeigh put up 39 points, while Cotton had a dominant 41, but last night was a tragedy for Cairns.

Without McVeigh, Cairns has nobody who is able to truly take over games, and he is the man who is leading the charge this season, but some inconsistent games have had some people wondering. While import talents such as Admiral Schofield and Andrew Andrews are solid, the Taipans’ three-man attack has not proven to be good enough to lead a team to finals contention. The bench is also quite questionable at times, which makes things even worse for Cairns.

With McVeigh scoring nine points off 28 per cent efficiency and Schofield having three points off 33 per cent efficiency, people needed to step up and be the difference maker to stand their ground against a powerhouse club like Adelaide, and Andrews and Sam Waardenburg led the way. Andrews put up 15 points and six assists, while Waardenburg had a season-high 19 points.

Adelaide’s star shooter,Bryce Cotton (22 points) also struggled with efficiency and he actually only shot at 26 per cent. While he kept being aggressive offensively putting up multiple shots, he just could not find his scoring rhythm which is why he finished on 6/23 from the field. As always, he was able to get to the rim and draw fouls, shooting 10 and making eight. While his efficiency was bad, the difference between McVeigh and Cotton is that the latter is such a dominant force that he can get his teammates open and hit them for kickout passes.

Most seem to forget that while Cotton leads the league as always in points, he also leads the league in assists, and on Wednesday he was able to show why, as he had 11 assists with just one turnover. Along with that, he also put up six rebounds and three steals, putting up an incredible game even while considering his struggles shooting the ball. Nick Rakocevic was able to put up 19 points in 19 minutes, on 66 per cent efficiency and also had 13 rebounds, six of which were at the offensive end. Dejan Vasiljevic scored 15 points, an effort that included three triples that helped Adelaide down the stretch.

A solid showing from Adelaide at home base see them taking care of business, and whilst not their best overall performance, they showed that even while Cotton is not scoring at his usual rate, other players are able to step up and Cotton can influence games in so many other ways. Going forward Adelaide remains in first and will try and defend this spot where they sit quite comfortably, and are followed by South East Melbourne Phoenix and then Melbourne United, who have dramatically dropped from their start-of-season form.