Travis Trice might be playing 15,000km from his home state of Ohio, but the Cairns Taipans couldn't have asked for a better homecoming from their point guard.
Under pressure after he failed to fire for the Taipans during their three-game road run, Trice was a man possessed playing against Melbourne at the Cairns Convention Centre for the first time on Thursday night.
The Taipans won 83-75 and the Michigan State alumni scored 28 points, shooting at 66 per cent, recorded a mere two turnovers and drew five fouls to lead the Snakes to their first win of the season.
"I'm just happy we got the win. Going into it I didn't think about myself just about how I could help the team and it felt good to get that first win," Trice said.
Cairns coach Aaron Fearne had been openly critical of his point guard during the Taipans' winless start.
He was more than pleased with the 23-year-old's response.
"The NBL is a huge point guard dominant league. Every team has a point guard that can run the floor and I got that from Travis tonight.
"He'll take a lot of confidence out of that,"
Trice's pre-season was limited after he suffered a knee injury and he admitted he had a mental hurdle to overcome.
"It was just really confidence and trust that I wasn't going to hurt it with what I was doing," he said.
"I'm starting to feel like I'm getting that back."
The Taipans will now look to break a year-long losing streak on the road when they take on Illawarra on Sunday in Wollongong.
Meanwhile, Melbourne have fallen to a 3-4 record to start the season and coach Dean Demopoulos was blunt: they need injured Boomer Chris Goulding.
"Yeah we need him back, he is arguably the face of the franchise so that is obvious." he said.
