Bullets fall to sharpshooting United

The Brisbane Bullets couldn’t quite maintain a strong start against Melbourne United on Sunday at John Cain Arena with the home team going on to record the 103-68 victory.

The Bullets were attempting to avoid a 10th straight defeat against United and started off impressively with Sam McDaniel sparking a 10-0 run during the opening quarter.

However, former Bullet Chris Goulding knocked down five three-pointers for Melbourne in the second quarter and that helped his United team take control of the contest and to end up securing the 35-point victory.

It was a significant milestone game for Bullets captain Nathan Sobey as he reached his 250th appearance in the NBL. He finished with 12 points and three rebounds.

Tyrell Harrison is now a 100-game NBL player with the Bullets too and he fought hard and had an especially strong start for 10 points on 5/5 shooting.

Sam McDaniel was back on the court he won a championship with at Melbourne and had 12 points, three rebounds and two assists for Brisbane with DJ Mitchell again starting in the absence of Josh Bannan to have nine points, nine rebounds and three steals.

Aron Baynes also contributed eight points and three rebounds, Chris Smith seven points, three boards and two steals, Isaac White six points and five rebounds.

Chris Goulding top-scored for Melbourne with 21 points on 7/9 three-point shooting with Luke Travers adding 16 points, Ian Clark 14 and Matthew Dellavedova 14.

After Melbourne led 8-6 in the opening minutes, Brisbane took charge by scoring the game's next 10 points beginning with a flush from Tyrell Harrison before three consecutive buckets to Sam McDaniel against his former team, and then capped off by Isaac White.

That saw the Bullets leading 16-8 with Chris Smith then hitting from outside and Aron Baynes scoring inside to help the visitors lead 21-18 after one on the back of 58 per cent field goal shooting.

Brisbane's lead was back out to five to start the second frame with McDaniel putting himself into double-figures, but Melbourne began to warm up from there starting with scoring the next eight points.

Harrison scored a steadying bucket for the Bullets but it then became the Chris Goulding show and he would end up knocking down five three-pointers the rest of the quarter to help his team go into half-time leading 54-37.

While the Bullets were still shooting 51 per cent from the field, they did take six fewer field goals and five less free-throws than United who went 9/19 from downtown in the opening half.

The Bullets came out scoring the first four points of the second half thanks to 250-gamer Nathan Sobey and 100-gamer Harrison. Brisbane also did well holding Goulding scoreless in the third quarter, but they couldn’t quite make inroads despite scoring 22 points.

United still led 77-59 at three quarter-time and that lead got out to 22 early in the fourth quarter before a bucket for Brisbane from Baynes. Sobey then also hit a jumper to take his tally to eight on the game but the Bullets couldn’t quite get back into the contest.

After DJ Mitchell knocked down his second triple of the game, Melbourne scored the final 14 points to score the 35-point win.

The Bullets are back at home next Sunday for another Sunshine Stoush against the Cairns Taipains

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 10

BRISBANE BULLETS 68 (Sobey 12, McDaniel 12, Harrison 10)

MELBOURNE UNITED 103 (Goulding 21, Travers 16, Clark 14, Dellavedova 14)

BOX SCORE