Goulding Shoots Melbourne to Second Big Round 3 Win

Melbourne United hadn’t won a game in #NBL22 four days ago. The defending champions have won twice in Round 3 by a combined 65 points on the back of Sunday's 83-60 win against the New Zealand Breakers.

United's title defence didn’t start ideally with losses to the Sydney Kings and South East Melbourne, but they got captain Chris Goulding back on Thursday, potential future captain Jack White on Sunday, and things came together nicely.

Melbourne hammered Sydney in remarkable fashion on Thursday night with the 42-point win on the back of scoring the first 26 points of the game at John Cain Arena to open their account this season.

It was back to their home floor on Sunday and Melbourne got off to a similarly fast start leading 14-4 early doors against the winless Breakers.

However, New Zealand did fight hard searching for that first win of the season until Goulding shut the door on them.

The two-time championship winning captain and bronze medal winning Olympian made up for lost time this season by hitting six three-pointers in the second half alone on his way to 21 points on 7/13 shooting from deep.

Caleb Agada continues to find his feet in the NBL with another 20 points, five rebounds and three assists on going 4/5 from beyond the arc while Jo Lual-Acuil had 12 points and nine boards, and Next Star Ariel Hukporti 11 points and seven boards.

Jack White made a successful return from a ruptured Achilles as well playing 18 minutes for six points, eight rebounds and two blocks.

United coach Dean Vickerman was delighted with the two wins this weekend where they only conceded 107 points to the Breakers and Kings.

"This is the first game for a long time that we've had everybody available. We came in with the squad that we selected for the season and obviously it was a big occasion for us to celebrate Jack White's return," Vickerman said.

"I thought the club did a great job with the 'Jack's Back' t-shirts. It's not an easy thing coming off that type of injury but it was great to see him running around and having some fun. He's only going to get better and we saw that our defence can be really good with this group. 

"We have so many guys that are committed to it and CG did an outstanding job on Besson with his commitment to staying with the scout. We stuck to what we wanted to live with when it comes to their guys. 

"Now we just have to improve offensively still. We are going through patches of not finishing plays or moving the ball enough so we'll keep working that one out. It was just pleasing to get these two wins at home especially when we don’t get back here for a while."

It was a tough finish to the game for the Breakers who just ran out of gas without captain Tom Abercrombie and new import Chasson Randle.

Finn Delany put up 14 points and nine rebounds for the now 0-5 Breakers with Yanni Wetzell adding 12 points and four rebounds.

Breakers coach Dan Shamir was lamenting the tough position his team finds themselves in.

"We struggled defensively and in a lot of areas including creating shots and shooting the ball, but creating shots was No. 1," Shamir said.

"At some point the game went away from us and it's obviously the story of not only today's game, but part of the bigger picture. These are tough times for us and we have to just figure it out."

The start for Melbourne was starting to hark back to their 26-0 opening on Thursday against Sydney on the same floor. With Caleb Agada hitting a couple of threes and Jo Lual-Acuil imposing himself inside, Melbourne went up 14-4.

However, unlike the Kings on Thursday, the Breakers were able to stem the tide and with Yanni Wetzell again finding a way to score inside, they hit eight of the next 10 points even though United remained on top 21-14 after one.

It became quite the defensive grind in the second term with plenty of turnovers, missed shots and offensive fouls called. It was New Zealand who found a way to score first, though, with Finn Delany and Will McDowell-White connecting on triples to make it a one-point game.

It was a late three from Melbourne captain Chris Goulding that helped the home side remain on top 34-31 at the break though.

Goulding became the difference in the second half and the Melbourne captain opened up the second half with a three-pointer. He would hit a couple more throughout the quarter with United able to turn into the fourth term with a 52-43 edge.

New Zealand, though, was still staying in touch and trailed by just six when Finn Delany hit a three midway through the fourth quarter.

Goulding would have none of it, though, and three dagger threes in the final minutes as part of an 11-0 run that turned an eight point lead into a 19-point advantage before Melbourne won by 23.

It's the last game now for both teams until after Christmas which sees them each in action on Boxing Day. The Breakers face the JackJumpers in Hobart while United take on the Kings in Sydney.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 3

MELBOURNE UNITED 83 (Goulding 21, Agada 20, Lual-Acuil 12)

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 60 (Delany 14, Wetzell 12, Besson 8) 

BOX SCORE