Bullets take down Taipans in the pre-season

Written by: NBL Media

Smith would drain seven three-pointers in a 96-65 victory against the Cairns Taipans. The Bullets had already had a pre-season hit out against real opposition two weeks ago, beating California Baptist University by 27 points, and then backed up against a the Snakes on Saturday at Bundaberg Multiplex Sports Centre.

Brisbane opened the game on fire, scoring the opening seven points, which was topped off with new import Chris Smith hitting his first of seven three-pointers for the evening.

He soon added a second to give the Bullets the 10-2 lead, after Sam Mennenga opened the scoring for the Taipans.

The Snakes did battle hard, including outscoring the Bullets 25 points to 22 in the second quarter to cut the Brisbane lead to 42-36 at half-time, but eventually the shorthanded nature of their squad took its toll.

Brisbane was missing NBL1 North Grand Final MVP Nathan Sobey, but the rest of the squad for new Hostplus Head Coach Justin Schueller was available. With Smith unstoppable with an eye-opening shooting performance, they outscored the Taipans 54 points to 29 in the second half, to win by 31.

The star of the evening was Chris Smith for the Bullets and he only played 18 and-a-half minutes. The Utah State alum arrives as a noted scorer and showed an exciting glimpse of that, with 25 points on the back of hitting 7/8 from three-point range.

Point guard Shannon Scott showed what an astute signing he will be too after his terrific first NBL season at the Taipans, as he led Brisbane with 16 points and four assists in 23 minutes.

Fresh off leading the scoring in the NBL1 North at the Mackay Meteors, Isaac White also produced 12 points, 11 assists and five rebounds for the Bullets with plenty more good signs, with nine points from Josh Bannan, and seven points, seven boards and two steals from Aron Baynes.

Tyrell Harrison also had seven points, four rebounds and a block, new signing Mitch Norton six points, six rebounds and three assists, NBL1 South Best Defensive Player Sam McDaniel five points, five rebounds and two assists, and DJ Mitchell five points and five boards.

For the Taipans, budding Kiwi star Sam Mennenga delivered 15 points and four rebounds on 6/11 shooting including a couple of three-pointers in his 27 minutes.

Fellow New Zealand big man Sam Waardenburg also finished with eight points and two rebounds with Akoldah Gak delivering 11 points, eight boards and three assists.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL PRE-SEASON GAME

BRISBANE BULLETS 96 (Smith 25, Scott 16, White 12)
CAIRNS TAIPANS 65 (Mennenga 15, Gak 11, Mudronja 9) 

BOX SCORE

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