Goulding fires as United lock down Bullets

The combination of their trademark stifling defence and a hot shooting first half from Chris Goulding meant Melbourne United had little trouble disposing of the Brisbane Bullets 89-78 in the NBL at John Cain Arena.

Both teams were fresh off playing on Friday night, with Melbourne winning in Perth and Brisbane losing at home to Sydney, and it was a chess match early and a defensive grind.

That was until United captain and 413-game veteran Goulding blew the game open. He hit four three-pointers in the latter part of the second quarter, including three in-a-row making up a 9-0 run.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">CG43 is on FIRE ?<br><br>5?? triples in the half. <br><br>Catch the second half live and FREE on Kayo Freebies / 10 Peach &amp; 10 Play ? <a href="https://t.co/paYbNz4a1x">pic.twitter.com/paYbNz4a1x</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1713405957764419619?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

He had 15 points at half-time with that combined with the superb defence of United holding Brisbane to 28 points on 32 per cent field goal shooting with 11 turnovers meaning the home team were in control 43-28.

The Bullets were still missing their starting front court of the suspended Aron Baynes and injured Josh Bannan, and had no answer for the physicality and defensive commitment of Melbourne.

Melbourne's lead would balloon to as much as 27 points before the Bullets did manage 33 in the fourth quarter to close the final margin to 11.

United did lose Matthew Dellavedova to concussion before half-time but Goulding top-scored with 18 points while Shea Ili had 14 points and eight assists, and imposing Next Star Ariel Hukporti 11 points and 12 rebounds.

While United coach Dean Vickerman was happy with the win to improve to 4-1, his thoughts were with Dellavedova.

"We got him home pretty quickly and he'll be assessed," Vickerman said.

"Obviously there's a little bit of history there over his career and I'm just feeling for him right now.

"We'll find out more information but we're just more concerned about him right now and we saw too much of it last year (with Ili) so I just hope he's doing good."

It's a third straight loss for Brisbane with Baynes still sidelined for three more matches but they will take something out of the fourth quarter.

Shannon Scott top-scored with 19 points while Nathan Sobey scored 16 and Chris Smith 15 while Tyrell Harrison contributed nine points, nine rebounds and three blocks.

Bullets coach Justin Schueller will take the lessons from the game against a team he was assistant coach at the last six seasons.

"It's a frustrating one again and I've got to do a good job here of just figuring out the way why we went through a huge patch there where we just couldn’t create offence," Schueller said.

"It just felt like we were searching too long for offensive answers and I love the fight in our group, and that we continue to challenge, but it's just that offensive patch and only 28 points in the first half is not where we need to be."

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 3

MELBOURNE UNITED 89 (Goulding 18, Ili 14, Hukporti 11) 
BRISBANE BULLETS 78 (Scott 19, Sobey 16, Smith 15)

BOX SCORE