Cairns star’s ankle injury sours win over Bullets

Steve Barrett | January 12, 2026

Cairns have survived a valiant second-half rally by Brisbane to prevail 88-83, but their tense win was soured by another ankle injury to captain Sam Waardenburg.

Jack McVeigh scored 25 points, Kyrin Galloway added 19 and Andrew Andrews paired 18 points with 13 assists for the Taipans at the Cairns Convention Centre in the Monday night fixture, which had been postponed due to Cyclone Koji.

Waardenburg, who missed the first 11 rounds of the season after undergoing right ankle surgery, had 13 points on 100 per cent shooting.

But his evening was cut short when he rolled his left ankle on Bullets import Terry Taylor’s foot before exiting the game with 5:46 left in the third quarter, at which point Cairns led 58-46.

“He (Waardenburg) is in good spirits, but we’ll get the scans tomorrow,” Taipans coach Adam Forde said.

“It’s the other foot, which is good because he’s a bit stronger in that foot than the other one.”

Americans Sam Maldonado (31 points) and Taylor (22) led the charge for the injury-ravaged Brisbane, who trailed by 16 points in the second term.

“It was alright, but we need to be better, to be honest,” McVeigh said bluntly.

“We were up by a good margin playing some good basketball in the first half, and the same thing happened in the second.

“I’m not happy with that. We’ve got to go the lab and continue to improve.”

Waardenburg was the dominant force early, with 11 first-quarter points to catapult the Snakes to a 28-16 cushion at the first change.

Waardenburg and Galloway had 27 points on 13-of-14 shooting combined at halftime, when the Taipans led 47-35.

Brisbane finally played some defence after the main break, while a rampant Maldonado and Taylor put on a two-man, downhill show in the third as the visitors closed the gap to 68-62 at three-quarter-time.

The depleted, last-placed Bullets continued to chip away bravely and tied the game at 81-all on a Tohi Smith-Milner trey.

But down by three with 11.6 seconds left, Brisbane couldn’t nail the last clunky possession, with Taylor missing a three before McVeigh stole the ball for a lay-up on the buzzer.

“The plan was Andrews and McVeigh – trying not to let them get off,” Bullets caretaker coach Darryl McDonald said.

“Those first two quarters we struggled defensively.”