Bullets fight it out on the road to United

While never content with a loss, the Brisbane Bullets showed some strong fight against Melbourne United on Sunday to close a tough Round 3 NBL double to produce an encouraging fourth quarter.

While Melbourne still claimed the 89-78 victory at John Cain Arena on Sunday afternoon, the Bullets showed plenty in the fourth quarter to mean it wasn’t a trip without positives to take from it.

The Bullets were fresh off a loss at home on Friday night to the defending champion Sydney Kings where they conceded 113 points, but the defence was more in tune early on Sunday against United.

It was just that Brisbane couldn’t find any offensive groove and scoring 45 points over the opening three quarters was never going to be a winning formula.

However, the Bullets dug deep and turned up the defensive pressure in the final period and then found some offensive confidence with 33 points to cut the final margin to 11.

Shannon Scott ended up leading the scoring for the Bullets with 19 points to go with four steals and two assists while making all three of his long-range attempts.

Nathan Sobey produced another 16 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two steals with Chris Smith delivering 15 points and two steals on 7/13 shooting from the floor.

Tyrell Harrison continued to stand tall in the absence of Aron Baynes with another nine points, eight rebounds and three blocks while Rocco Zikarsky will learn plenty from battles with Ariel Hukporti and Rob Loe. He had four rebounds and a block in 11 minutes.

Sam McDaniel also had eight points for Brisbane against a team he won a championship with while DJ Mitchell added five points and four rebounds, Mitch Norton four points and two boards, and Isaac White two points and two rebounds.

Chris Goulding top-scored for Melbourne with 18 points with five first half three-pointers while Shea Ili added 14 points (eight assists), Ariel Hukporti 11 (12 rebounds), Luke Travers 10 and Ian Clark 10.

After Tyrell Harrison scored the game's first basket down low, Melbourne hit the next seven points but then Brisbane did well to respond with the next seven with the first five from Chris Smith, and another two to Tyrell Harrison.

In response to that, United hit the game's next seven points to regain the lead but then the trend continued with the Bullets scoring the next five including a three ball to Sam McDaniel.

From there, scores were all tied at 14-14 by quarter-time but it took less than a minute into the second quarter for Hostplus Bullets Head Coach Justin Schueller to call for a timeout after giving up five quick points.

Things then got away from the Bullets for the rest of the second frame as they managed just another 14 points to go into half-time with 32 per cent field goal shooting and 11 turnovers.

Chris Goulding put Brisbane to the sword too with four three-pointers to close the half and that saw Melbourne go into the break leading 43-28.

While Brisbane did score first to start the second half thanks to Nathan Sobey, things didn’t get too much better with United soon going on a 9-0 run stretch that lead out to 22.

It soon became as big as 27 too and the Bullets had to dig deep, and to their credit they did including a string of three three-pointers from Shannon Scott to close the third quarter.

Brisbane was then able to take some positives from the afternoon with a strong fourth quarter, which started with a pressing defence that interrupted the flow that United had with their offence.

As a result, the Bullets did restrict Melbourne to 23 points but it was at the offensive end that they found some flow and confidence for the first time in the game.

At one point through the middle stages of the quarter the Bullets were able to go on a 16-4 run as well including three-pointers to Sobey and DJ Mitchell while Smith and Scott continued to find their groove.

While a win was never quite within reach, the 33-point final period was impressive for the Bullets to cut the margin to 11 to take something out of the afternoon.

The Bullets will be back in Melbourne next Saturday night, this time to take on the South East Melbourne Phoenix at John Cain Arena.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 3

BRISBANE BULLETS 78 (Scott 19, Sobey 16, Smith 15)

MELBOURNE UNITED 89 (Goulding 18, Ili 14, Hukporti 11)

BOX SCORE