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CAIRNS - The Midas touch of Melbourne coach Alan Westover remained intact but only after the Tigers held out a gutsy Cairns Taipans 95-87 here last night, booking an Australian National Basketball League grand final showdown with Brisbane.
Westover extended his unbeaten finals record to 7-0 by sweeping Cairns and guiding the defending champions into the season-deciding series.
Incredibly Westover has not lost a finals match since stepping into the big shoes of retired Tigers mentor Lindsay Gaze after the 2005 season.
Not that Westover had everything his own way tonight.
Despite Melbourne at one stage leading by 23, Westover was made to sweat for the win when Cairns -- buoyed on by a sellout crowd of more than 5300 -- cut the deficit to 10 twice in the fourth quarter.
Desperate shooting limited the damage to just single figures but it was too little too late for the Taipans.
Chris Anstey top scored with 16 points for the Tigers, while Darnell Mee claimed a game-high 23 for the Taipans.
Melbourne's late scare was hardly the nerve-settler the Tigers needed before the best-of-five grand final series begins in Brisbane on Friday night.
All the hype in ANBL circles this week has centred around Brisbane's remarkable run to their first grand final series since 1990 with 20 straight victories.
Tonight's loss ended an impressive run by the never-say-die Taipans who upset the Wildcats in Perth last week to win through to their second straight semifinal series.
A sea of orange greeted the Tigers as rabid Taipans fans packed the venue in the home team's unmistakable colours but Cairns coach Alan Black was seeing red early when the hosts initially had no answer to the defending champions.
The alarm bells were ringing for Cairns when Melbourne dumped in the first eight points and by the opening break led 33-16 after Nathan Crosswell (10 points) ensured the Tigers' bench arsenal fired once again.
It only got worse for the toothless Taipans as a merciless Melbourne surged to a 66-45 halftime buffer thanks to eight point second terms from Chris Anstey and Stephen Hoare.
Cairns kept plugging away and outscored Melbourne 17-14 in the third to reduce the deficit to 80-62 by the final break to at least give themselves a sniff.
- AAP
