Melbourne Tigers edge Cairns Taipans to stay in touch with top four Seth Scott made two crucial free throws late in the game. THE Melbourne Tigers managed to hold their nerve and were the beneficiaries of some late brainfades from the Cairns Taipans to win a tense clash 67-64 at the Cage today. In outlasting the visitors, the Tigers kept themselves in touch with the top four while also putting a two-game gap on the Taipans, who slumped to seventh on the NBL ladder. After entering the final term up by five points, the Tigers soon found themselves behind and with just over 90 seconds remaining, trailed by one point. But Chris Goulding manoeuvred his way to the basket and nailed a floater to put the home team up with 1.19 left on the clock. Remarkably, the Taipans then turned the ball over three times for the remainder of the game, including a shot-clock violation and a fumble from an in-bounds pass. In a desperate last attempt to get the ball, they fouled the Tigers three times in the final 30 seconds, finally sending Melbourne import Seth Scott to the line. He nailed two crucial free-throws - having missed his previous two - and after some more late scrambling the Tigers held on. Scott and fellow Tigers import Jonny Flynn played the entire second half of the game and led their team in scoring with 19 and 21 points respectively. Cairns point-guard Jamar Wilson, who strangely sat on the bench for much of the third quarter when the Tigers took the ascendency, finished with 19 for his team while Shane Edwards had 17. The Tigers offence struggled badly in the first half and found themselves down by five points at the main break. But in the third term Melbourne started to score and with Flynn and Scott combining, the Tigers got out to a nine-point lead. With the season almost on the line for Cairns, the visitors fought back in the final quarter, tying the score with four minutes to go, but ultimately failing to hang on.