Bullets fall short of United

It turned out to be a dramatic night and not the celebration for captain Mitch Norton the Brisbane Bullets were hoping for, but there was still plenty to take heart from especially offensively despite Melbourne United winning 120-103.

The Bullets were back home on Thursday night at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre attempting to beat United for the first time in almost four years and to also keep the momentum going having won three of the past four this season.

It was also the 350th NBL game of captain Norton so there was plenty to play for from a Bullets perspective and the home team did make a host start to turn the tide on what has been a slow start trend in NBL25.

However, Melbourne ended up having too much firepower as the night went on and even after a lengthy delay thanks to a broadcast power failure, after the game resumed and final three minutes were played out, United claimed the 17-point victory.

There was still plenty to like for the Bullets especially the aggressiveness to attack inside that led 29/33 at the foul line for the evening with Keandre Cook going 11/11 on his way to 23 points along with five assists.

Casey Prather also put up 21 points to go with eight rebounds with Josh Bannan contributing 17 points and six boards, Tyrell Harrison 13 points and six rebounds, James Batemon seven points and four assists, Rocco Zikarsky five points and four boards, and Isaac White four points.

After his 350th game, Norton was just focused on the positives the Bullets can take after he finished with 12 points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals.

"That game tonight just proves that we can play alongside some of the top dogs in this league," he said.

"There's definitely areas that we can work on and have kind of been a common trait throughout this season, but at the same time it's fixable which is the positive sign."

Brisbane couldn’t have made a more perfect start with milestone man Mitch Norton scoring the game's first bucket and then Keandre Cook caught fire to put up eight straight points to help the Bullets to the 10-2 advantage.

Norton, Josh Bannan and Casey Prather then helped the Bullets to a 16-8 advantage but from there United went on a 16-2 run before a Tyrell Harrison basket to close the first quarter and keep Brisbane within four after one.

Then after the Bullets did find themselves 11 points down in the second quarter, they hit back impressively beginning with back-to-back and-one conversions to Harrison.

James Batemon then caught fire with eight straight points to bring the home team back within a point, but United did close out the half 7-3 to go into the break leading 52-45.

While United was shooting 53 per cent to 38 from the Bullets, Brisbane were doing well taking the ball to the rack and attempted 17 first half free-throws to four.

Melbourne did manage to open up a 16-point lead midway through the third quarter, but the Bullets answered with the next eight points including six straight of those courtesy of Bannan.

Then with United back up 16, Brisbane again responded with the next five points but still by three quarter-time United were on top by 16 after three.

Melbourne did push its lead out to 16 points midway through the third quarter, but the Bullets kept on responding and answered by scoring eight consecutive points including the last six of those to Bannan.

Again when United were back out by 16 later in the quarter, Bannan, Isaac White and Tohi Smith-Milner combined for five points to keep the margin at 14 by three quarter-time.

An and-one from Norton and three-pointer from Prather early in the fourth quarter had the Bullets back within 11 and then it was still only a 12-point game with just under six minutes on the clock when Prather scored again.

When play was delayed because of the broadcast outage, Melbourne leading 104-89 with 3:24 to play. Once play resumed, the Bullets threw everything into scoring quickly and heavily.

In the end, United added 16 points after the resumption with the Bullets adding 14 with the visitors winning by 17.

Having now played a league low eight games over the opening eight rounds of NBL25, the Bullets don't play again until an away game to the Tasmania JackJumpers next Friday.

They will then host the Perth Wildcats back at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre next Sunday afternoon.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

BRISBANE BULLETS 103 (Cook 23, Prather 21, Bannan 17)

MELBOURNE UNITED 120 (Loe 30, Goulding 21, Clark 18)

BOX SCORE