Kyrin Galloway has put his old team to the sword to start the fourth quarter with Rob Edwards scoring 31 points as Cairns held out Adelaide 101-97 in their home opener.
The Taipans were still without point guards Taran Armstrong (calf) and Jackson Makoi (suspended) but enjoyed being back in front of their fans at Cairns Convention Centre on Saturday to score a first win of the NBL season.
After finishing last season strongly with the 36ers, Galloway has moved to Cairns in NBL25 and scored 10 points in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter as part of a 17-2 run.
Adelaide were back within three with a minute to play, but Rob Edwards sealed it for Cairns with a sixth three-pointer on his way to 31 points and four assists.
Both teams were coming off HoopsFest losses in Perth and came out firing in Far North Queensland with Sam Waardenburg and Edwards having six early points for the Snakes who led 14-6.
DJ Vasiljevic responded for the 36ers with 12 points in a matter of minutes and then Montrezl Harrell had 10 quick points to open the second term, but the Snakes made 10 first-half threes and scored the last seven points to be up 58-54 at the break.
There were big shots aplenty in the third term with scores tied by three-quarter time but then the Taipans came out to score the first 13 points of the fourth quarter.
Galloway scored 10 of those with Cairns holding on for the encouraging win with Waardenburg delivering 21 points, 11 rebounds and four assists, Jonah Antonio 13 points and Pedro Bradshaw 10.
"I really want to give credit to the boys because they were able to bring it back in their favour and it was on the back of some great shooting, but some real good team defence," Taipans coach Adam Forde said, crediting his team for their response to last week's loss to Illawarra.
"If the shot's falling that's great, but if it isn't then you have to win on the defensive end and for the majority of the game we did good."
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It's back-to-back losses for Adelaide to start the season under new coach Mike Wells with DJ Vasiljevic delivering 24 points with 4-of-8 from downtown.
Excitement machine Montrezl Harrell had another 20 points and five rebounds, with Kendric Davis ending up with 14 points and eight assists and Jason Cadee nine points and four assists in game 395.
"Offensively we did function and shot the ball at a good clip, and scored enough points to win the game," Wells said.
"But our problem was defence and that's two games in a row where someone has shot over 50 per cent on us."