Humphries Stands Tall for United

Melbourne United found its best form of the pre-season after a slow start to close the NBL Blitz on Friday night despite the absence of Ariel Hukporti to beat the Brisbane Bullets 80-67 and hand the Loggins-Bruton Cup to the Adelaide 36ers.

Melbourne suffered a devastating blow on Wednesday night with second-year Next Star Hukporti rupturing an Achilles tendon, but United responded well on Friday to close the Blitz in Darwin with Isaac Humphries leading their charge against Brisbane.

The Bullets needed to win the game and at least three of the quarters to remain a chance of winning the Loggins-Bruton Cup as Blitz champions on the back of first up wins against the New Zealand Breakers and Cairns Taipans.

Brisbane then started well with Tanner Krebs on fire with nine quick points, but Melbourne took charge as the game wore on. 

United ended up winning by 13 to claim their second pre-season win and hand the Loggins-Bruton Cup to the Sixers in the process for a second straight season.

While Chris Goulding top-scored for Melbourne with 19 points on 5/12 three-point shooting, the form of Humphries might have been the biggest positive. He played 27 minutes for 12 points, seven rebounds and two blocks after missing much of the past two seasons with injury in Adelaide.

Xavier Rathan-Mayes played well again as point guard with 11 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals while the out-of-retiremenet Dave Barlow added 10 points and four boards, Jordan Caroline nine points and five rebounds, and Rayjon Tucker seven points and eight boards.

Krebs started and finished the game on fire for Brisbane to put up 21 points on 9/14 shooting as he brings his NBL1 North championship winning form at the Gold Coast Rollers into the NBL.

He was the only Bullets player to score in double-figures with Tyler Johnson finishing with eight points and three assists, and Harry Froling seven points and seven rebounds.

Aron Baynes played another 18 minutes for four points and six rebounds while Nathan Sobey's minutes increased too to 15 for three points.

Brisbane had the chance to secure the Loggins-Bruton Cup with another strong performance and they started on fire with three balls form Nathan Sobey and Tanner Krebs.

While Melbourne went on a 9-2 run in response, Krebs then took over the contest on the back of his NBL1 North form with Gold Coast by hitting six straight points as part of eight consecutive Bullets points.

However, United veterans Dave Barlow and Brad Newley steadied things late and cut the Bullets lead to three by quarter-time.

It was slow going for both teams to start the second period until Goulding hitting his second three ball of the night for Melbourne. He had a couple of shots waved away, but he nailed another late in the quarter and United went into the break up 38-35. 

That meant Brisbane needed to win the last two quarters, and the game, to be any chance of claiming the Loggins-Bruton Cup, but it wasn’t to be with Melbourne finding its best patch of form of pre-season despite being without Ariel Hukporti, Shea Ili and Mason Peatling.

United went on to outscore the Bullets 21 points to 14 again in the third quarter on the back of triples from Jordan Caroline, Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Zac Triplett which knocked Brisbane out of contention of winning the Blitz.

Krebs lit it up once again in the fourth quarter for the Bullets hitting another pair of three balls and three other buckets to give him 12 of his 21 points for the game. 

That helped his team get back within six on a few occasions, but they couldn’t get any closer with triples from Goulding and Barlow steadying United on their way to the 13-point win.

Both teams now turn their attention to Round 1 of NBL23 which sees Melbourne United first up next Sunday at home to the New Zealand Breakers. The Bullets are on the road to John Rillie's Perth Wildcats later that same day.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL BLITZ – DAY 8

MELBOURNE UNITED 80 (Goulding 19, Humphries 12, Rathan-Mayes 11) 

BRISBANE BULLETS 67 (Krebs 21, Johnson 8, Froling 7)

BOX SCORE