Norton, Patterson lead Bullets gutsy showing

The Brisbane Bullets had every reason to think it was too hard against Melbourne United, but they dug deep with a 39-point fourth quarter of which 27 came from Lamar Patterson and Mitch Norton to get ever so close.

The Bullets arrived at John Cain Arena with the job ahead of them against a fresh and waiting ladder-leading United especially given what's happened this week with a 29-point Wednesday loss to New Zealand, and losing Casey Prather to injury and parting company with Jaylen Adams.

Brisbane then were in a 21-point hole in the third quarter, but produced a stunning fourth term with 39 points as a team and 27 from their two most experienced players Patterson and Norton before only just falling short with Melbourne winning 99-93.

It was a tremendous job from the Bullets to get back within three after trailing by 21 especially given the final foul count where they were called for 27 and Melbourne only 17, and United attempted 36 free throws to 11 for the game.

Despite that, the Bullets shot 45 per cent from the field to 42 along with making 15/35 from deep to the 6/22 from United to have a chance late of securing what would been a remarkable win.

Bullets captain Norton finished with a season-best 19 points of which 16 came in that fourth quarter with 3/7 three-point shooting to go with two rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Patterson also produced 18 points and three assists with 4/7 three-point shooting while Tyrell Harrison delivered 16 points, 11 rebounds and three assists.

Dakota Mathias landed three triples in the first quarter on his way to 11 points and seven rebounds while Taine Murray was a team-best +13 in his 33:30 with nine points and three assists while limiting Chris Goulding to 13 points on 3/9 shooting.

Tristan Devers also had seven points with 3/4 shooting, Alex Ducas six points and two assists, Jacob Holt four points and five rebounds, and Jack Purchase three points, three boards and two blocked shots.

Milton Doyle ended up with 28 points, six rebounds and four assists for Melbourne with Jesse Edwards adding 14 points and three boards, Tyson Walker 12 points and two assists, the returning Shea Ili 10 points and four assists, and Finn Delany 10 points and four boards.

It had been quite the week for the Bullets to try and navigate with what happened on Wednesday on the Gold Coast and what has transpired since, but having been slow starters in recent games, they came out strongly against United.

Tyrell Harrison scored the opening five points of the game and then the Bullets were leading 19-7 after five minutes with Dakota Mathias having knocked down a couple of three-pointers, and Mitch Norton and Alex Ducas also connecting from deep.

Melbourne did finish the opening quarter on a 17-5 run from there but the Bullets had done well against a fresh opponent with the scores knotted at 24-24 by quarter-time despite United's eight free throws to three.

Brisbane had made 5/9 of their three-point attempts but then Melbourne opened the second quarter on fire and pushed out to a 14-point lead, but the Bullets did steady to at least stay in touch by half-time.

Despite 17 points for Melbourne from Milton Doyle, Brisbane had 12 and seven rebounds from Harrison to limit United's advantage to 47-38 even with the lopsided foul count with the home team taking 20 free throws to the Bullets' seven.

United hit the first eight points of the second half and before long had built a game-high 21 point-advantage, but Brisbane steadied things including with a triple from Jack Purchase to cut the Melbourne lead back to 18 by three quarter-time.

The tone of the final period was then set with a strong drive and finish to Norton which turned into a three-point play before he also hit a three ball to kickstart a 7-0 run.

And the Bullets were just getting started with their fightback with Tristan Devers hitting a three of his own to cut the deficit to 11 before Lamar Patterson landed a couple of tough ones from behind the arc to get it back to a single-figure ball game.

It was then just a six-point margin with a little over two minutes left when Murray landed another long bomb and suddenly Melbourne's lead was all the way back to six.

Norton completed another and-one to bring it back to five and then it was just three when the captain landed from downtown with 1:05 on the clock.

Brisbane couldn’t quite get back closer than that with Melbourne sealing the win at the foul line, but it was an effort full of heart and spirit from the Bullets with 39 points in the fourth quarter.

The Bullets are now back home to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Thursday night up against the South East Melbourne Phoenix in their last match before the FIBA break.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2025/26

BRISBANE BULLETS 93 (Norton 19, Patterson 18, Harrison 16)

MELBOURNE UNITED 99 (Doyle 28, Edwards 14, Goulding 13)

BOX SCORE