Landale inspires United Game 3 fightback over Phoenix

The NBL has got the Grand Final Series many predicted but the South East Melbourne Phoenix threw down an almighty challenge to Melbourne United and Jock Landale led their fightback to a dramatic 84-74 Game 3 semi-final victory.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">??<br><br>Watch all the best bits from <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnitedHQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MelbUnitedHQ</a>&#39;s win over the <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SEMelbPhoenix</a> all thanks to <a href="https://twitter.com/HungryJacksAU?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HungryJacksAU</a> ?<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBLFinals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBLFinals</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> <a href="https://t.co/nyg0geO1fX">pic.twitter.com/nyg0geO1fX</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1404766857861615623?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The two Melbourne teams had split the first two games at Qudos Bank Arena and it was back at the Sydney venue for the deciding Game 3. It couldn’t have been a more dramatic Throwdown contest with the right to face the Perth Wildcats in the Grand Final on the line.

The Phoenix might have been the last team to qualify for the finals, but their belief was there they could deliver the huge upset and that was on show in a remarkable start to Game 3 on Tuesday night.

With Keifer Sykes on fire with eight points and his teammates along for the ride, the Phoenix were up 10 by quarter-time and then dramatically up 17 to start the second quarter with back-to-back threes from Izayah Le'Afa.

The challenge was thrown right back onto a United team who have been championship favourites all season and finished three games clear on top of the ladder, and it was their superstar Jock Landale who answered the call.

The big man hit 12 points in the second quarter to help Melbourne within five at the half and then United gradually took over through the second half.

Landale added another six points in the third term but his captain Chris Goulding in his 350th NBL game was now along for the ride, and so was Scotty Hopson. Melbourne led by one turning for home and United closed the door with a terrific fourth quarter.

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Triples from Goulding and Yudai Baba were the killer blows as Melbourne won by 10 to advance to the Grand Final against the Wildcats starting in Perth on Friday.

After trailing 32-15 early in the second quarter, Melbourne's defence locked in to hold South East Melbourne to just 42 points the rest of the night while scoring 69 themselves.

Landale ended Game 3 with an equal season-high 27 points for Melbourne to go with eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks on shooting 11/13 from the floor and a perfect 3/3 from beyond the arc.

Goulding put up 14 points in his 350th game while Mitch McCarron contributed 11 points, eight rebounds and six assists, Scotty Hopson nine points and six boards, and Jo Lual-Acuil eight points and three rebounds.

United coach Dean Vickerman is proud to be leading his club to a third Grand Final in four years but acknowledges it took a special second half performance for them to overcome the Phoenix.

"It's what we want to be as a club is to be challenging for championships and in the last four years, this is our third crack at a Grand Final," Vickerman said. 

"Sustained success is difficult and tonight it looked pretty difficult when we were down 17 early on and credit to the Phoenix and the coaching staff of South East Melbourne. When you get into these kind of series, it's hard to run a set play especially with no crowd because everybody hears what the set play is and everybody knows it. 

"I thought we loosened up a little bit offensively and just stayed with good spacing, and good screening and made good reads. That was pretty difficult to scout but in that second quarter when we were down heavy, Jock kept us alive. He shot the three ball amazingly, he finished some tough ones on late shot clock and kept us in it.

"Then I think we found a rhythm defensively in the second half and there was a little Will Weaver in me tonight so say we've got a coverage that we think can work against Sykes. It didn’t look great early on but we stuck with it and made him shoot some tougher contested long layups in the second half. 

"Fortunately our on-ball defence and I though Sammy Mac really led that for us in the second half. He really got us going. We also did a good job on their perimeter guys all series and it was really pleasing the way we defended in that second half to hold them to 29."

South East Melbourne might feel they missed a chance, but in reality they should be proud to have pushed such a deep United team to the brink. 

Reuben Te Rangi did all he could with a season-best 22 points and six rebounds on 6/9 shooting from downtown.

Mitch Creek tried to inspire his team with 19 points and six rebounds while Keifer Sykes couldn’t keep his hot start going with 15 points on 6/20 shooting. Izayah Le'Afa added eight points with those two big second quarter triples.

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell was in a philosophical mood afterwards but did lament the great missed opportunity.

"That's a real difficult one to process. But I'm feeling a lot of pride in our group and I thought they spent themselves today. I thought they left it on the floor and we went out on our shield so I can't falter anything that we did there," Mitchell said. 

"We weren’t that clean and didn’t play exceptionally well, but that's playoff basketball, you're not always going to be at your best and you just have to find a way to hang in. We bent, but we didn’t break not until the final bell anyway. 

"There's a little bit of melancholy about it all really, I feel like a combination of pride, a lot of love for the guys in the team and the people on this trip. It's been a difficult four weeks and a difficult seven or eight months all up. 

"There's a lot of admiration there mixed with enormous disappointment because it's very, very difficult to put yourselves in a position to win championships. We were lucky enough to put ourselves in a position to at least qualify for a Grand Final today but we just lost it."

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL FINALS 2021
SEMI FINALS GAME 3

MELBOURNE UNITED 84 (Landale 27, Goulding 14, McCarron 11)

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 74 (Te Rangi 22, Creek 19, Sykes 15) 

BOX SCORE