CAIRNS gave Melbourne a mighty fright but were unable to put the bite on the reigning NBL champions as they suffered an 87-80 loss to United on Sunday.

It was the last-placed Taipans’ sixth-straight loss this season and their eight-consecutive defeat in Melbourne and Cairns will head home to Far North Queensland lamenting what could have been.

Cairns led by one point at quarter-time, three points at halftime and by five points at the last change.

At one stage in the third term, the Taipans were 12 points in front. But Melbourne seized the momentum and came charging home.

With 30 seconds left in the gripping contest, Cairns trailed by one point and were trying to inbound the ball. However, United import DJ Kennedy intercepted the pass to help Melbourne take control and kick away.

Melbourne star import Casper Ware (34 points, six assists) was outstanding in his personal battle with Cairns point guard Melo Trimble (19 points, four assists) and got good support from Mitch McCarron (16 points, nine rebounds) and Kennedy (10 points, five rebounds).

Taipans man-mountain Nate Jawai had his best game of the season with 17 points, 10 rebounds and three assists with Cairns looking good every time they threw the ball into their towering centre.

Import DJ Newbill had 13 points for the Snakes while fellow American Devon Hall found some form with 12 points and five rebounds.

Hall was relegated to the bench for the start of the match after indifferent numbers in the first six games of the season.

He hit just five shots from 33 three-point attempts and had just one double-figure points outing before the clash with United.

Coming off the bench, the second round draft pick in this year’s NBA draft hit his first three shots as the leader of Cairns’ second unit. Injecting some confidence into Hall was one of the positives of the result.

It did not look good for Cairns in the opening exchanges as Melbourne scored the first eight points of the match and it took the best part of four minutes for the visitors to get on the board.

They showed plenty of fight to go past United and lead at quarter-time but the lack of poise and execution down the stretch in the fourth quarter cost them again as the Taipans slumped to a 1-6 record after five rounds.

They will face league-leading Perth in Cairns this Saturday.