Mitsubishi Match Recap: Hungry Jack’s NBL26 - Round 16, Game 1 v Cairns Taipans

Melbourne United have dropped their opening game of Round 16 to the Cairns Taipans by the slimmest of margins on Wednesday evening.

United made attacking the basket a major focus to start the game, with their first two baskets coming through Jesse Edwards’ play in the post, before Chris Goulding got in the lane to float in his opening score.

Melbourne’s captain added a three-pointer after this, while the import guard pair of Tyson Walker and Milton Doyle each got inside for their own scores.

The scoring was continued by the bench when they entered the game, with Fabijan Krslovic, Tom Wilson, and Bendigo-raised Dash Daniels helping to keep up with the Taipans’ hot shooting.

The visitors were able to lean on their perimeter marksmanship to close the period, and go ahead 22-29 at the first break. 

Eager to cut into the margin quickly, Doyle connected on a triple, before buckets in the paint from Finn Delany and Tanner Krebs made it a two-point game.

With momentum on United’s side, Doyle got open for his second three-ball to take the lead, which preceded a Delany steal and long-range make of his own to make it a 10-0 run.

When the team needed extra opportunities, Kyle Bowen went to work on the boards, pulling down four offensive rebounds, which helped Melbourne maintain their advantage despite a late Taipans run and take a 45-43 lead into half time.

United came out of the break hot, scoring the first seven points to go up by as many as nine points.

Two more threes from Goulding, as well as a highlight block from Krslovic had the more than 4,000 fans in Bendigo going crazy, which helped the likes of Delany, Doyle and Walker all make the most of the looks inside the arc.

This noise only got louder when Edwards re-entered the game, with the big-man scoring in the post before rising up for a poster jam.

Despite this, Cairns continued to make shots, pushing all the way back in front by a point, 75-76 with one quarter to go.

In a hard-fought final quarter, it came down to the last few seconds to decide the result.

Goulding came up clutch time and time again, making back-to-back triples to tie the game at 92 down the stretch.

It was unfortunately not to be for United, as after a Taipans free throw, the home side missed their final look at fall 92-93.

Melbourne will get the opportunity to bounce back quickly on Sunday when they take on the Sydney Kings from 4:30pm.

The game will be streamed live on ESPN and Channel 10.