Melbourne United blew past the Brisbane Bullets 120-92 at John Cain Arena on Friday, turning a tight game into a 28-point defeat with a 37-19 final quarter. The loss left Brisbane at 6-6 and gave Melbourne a fourth consecutive victory.
For Brisbane, the result was made harder by the shoulder injury suffered by Jaylin Williams during the game. The Bullets had dragged themselves back to within 10 points at three-quarter-time, but Melbourne answered immediately and kept the pressure on, with Cole Anthony and Josh Oduro combining for 60 points and Anthony adding 32 points and six assists.
Lat Mayen was Brisbane's most productive scorer off the bench, finishing with 15 points and making three of four shots from beyond the arc. Mitch Norton and Nate Hinton each scored 13 points, with Hinton also adding four steals and three assists, while Taine Murray had 12 and Harry Rouhliadeff scored nine and hit three of seven from long range. Even so, Brisbane's 29 personal fouls helped hand Melbourne repeated trips to the line, and the home side converted 28 of 35 free throws.
The setback came after Brisbane had been riding its own winning run and had earlier beaten the Perth Wildcats 109-104 at Nissan Arena. That made the second-half collapse more costly, because a team that had shown it could find answers away from home could not contain Melbourne once the game tightened and the final quarter began to unravel.
Brisbane now heads to Spark Arena for a Friday night meeting with the New Zealand Breakers at 4.30pm, with the main question whether Williams is fit enough to take part after the shoulder injury that interrupted this one.
