He may have finished with a match-high 26 points against his old club but Stephen Black's contribution was not enough to help the Cairns Taipans win against the Brisbane Bullets in Thursday night's Queensland Cup clash.

Despite being without four players, including Sam Mackinnon, CJ Bruton, Ebi Ere and Justin Brown, the reigning NBL champion Bullets were too strong, 112-101, for the Taipans who conceded double-figure deficits in each quarter before launching a series of mini fight-backs.

Black finished with five three-pointers in his haul but said his motivation had little to do with facing his old club for the first time.

"I figured I had nothing to gain, it was a lose-lose situation because it wasn't for NBL points," he said.

"It was fun though, it was just like a training session but obviously as a team we didn't get the things done that we wanted to get done which is disappointing but that's why we play these preseason games. I think the best thing to come out of that is well learn a lot from it."

"As far as it being from Brisbane, that made it a bit more fun for me but it wasn't something where I have any animosity to them so it was hard to get fired up."

The Taipans had a distinct size advantage over the Bullets, but failed to capitalize fully, turning the ball over on 19 occasions as they attempted to move it inside. Big men Nathan Jawai (18 points, 10 rebounds) and Larry Abney (20 points, seven boards) made the most of their opportunities when they did get the ball but were forced to guard smaller, quicker men.

"They came out with a few of their better players missing, and really served it up to us, I guess that's why they are defending champions," Taipans coach Alan Black said.

"Full credit to them I thought they played really well. They exploited our size I guess offensively and we were unable to return the favour," Black said. "It's a great game to play at this point in time."

The Taipans opened poorly, Brisbane establishing a ten-point lead midway through the period as the Snakes failed to find range with their shots.

Photo: Gordon Greaves