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The Cairns Taipans held off a fast finishing Tasmania JackJumpers to seal back-to-back home NBL wins.
The Cairns Taipans built a 24-point lead then held firm to overcome the fast finishing Tasmania JackJumpers to make it consecutive home wins with a 90-78 victory.
Emerging point guard Taran Armstrong returned from a calf injury for the Snakes and was instrumental in Friday night's 12-point win with three crucial late buckets on his way to 20 points, five assists and four rebounds in 29 minutes.
Taipans coach Adam Forde saw exactly why he wants Armstrong to be the point guard on his team.
"We were supposed to cap him at 20 (minutes), but it's kind of hard not to put him out there when he's plus-22," he said.
"There's a level of stability he provides and even at the end when it started to get a little bit away from us, you chuck Kyle (Adnam) out there with him and we have these two level heads who are a calming influence for us to finish out the game."
On the back of their home opening win at Cairns Convention Centre against Adelaide, the Taipans came out flying with Rob Edwards (16 points, five rebounds, five assists) and Pedro Bradshaw (10 points) inspiring an 8-2 start.
Cairns led 27-21 by the end of the first quarter before scoring 13 straight points early in the second term, with the lead growing to 20.
Milton Doyle had 15 first half points to keep Tasmania somewhat in touch but Cairns' lead was out to 24 early in the second half including quick triples to Bradshaw and Sam Waardenburg (12 points, seven rebounds).
The title-holding JackJumpers, as is their way, refused to go away and responded with a 19-5 run to cut the deficit to 10, which is where the game remained at three-quarter-time.
Tasmania kept on coming and scored 10 straight points to suddenly make it a four-point game with four minutes to play, and the reigning champs had all the momentum while applying their trademark defensive pressure.
However, Armstrong and the Taipans responded with the next 10 points including three straight buckets to the returning point guard who played a starring role in the 12-point win.
Cairns who now head to Melbourne to play United on Sunday after shooting 58 percent from the field and overcoming 18 turnovers from which Tasmania scored 21 points.
Kyrin Galloway also had 14 points, with Tanner Groves especially effective in the first half for 11 points and four rebounds.
Doyle finished with 19 points for Tasmania with Will Magnay adding 14, Majok Deng 13 and Anthony Drmic 12, but they did shoot just 38 percent and attempted only eight free throws.
JackJumpers coach Scott Roth gave credit to the Taipans, especially for building their 24-point lead.
"They just played harder and longer than we did, and obviously put us on our back foot, and you give credit to them and their aggression to go play," he said.
"I love the fight of our guys to get back within four and we'll just build off of that now while doing better in some areas."
