United depth shines through in crucial moments

Thursday night’s crucial victory was a testament of the depth of not only our playing roster, but the coaching staff as well.

Missing Head Coach Dean Vickerman, Rhys Carter stepped up to lead the team for the first time in an actual NBL game, with the help of his fellow assistants David Barlow and Jack Fleming.

Speaking after the game, Carter praised the pair, as well as the preparation the team did leading into the game.

“We've had the prep with Deano all week, we had a plan A, B, and C ready to go, I'm not there to reinvent the wheel and put my spin on how we play,” Carter explained.

“I've been around Deano for a long time and I think we like to coach in a similar way. We're different personalities but I think I know how he likes to play and tried to just stick with that and not change up too much.

“We just had a solid plan in place, which is what I kind of kept relying on. 

“I had Dave Barlow and Jack Fleming sitting there with me, I definitely didn't do this alone, those two were huge. 

“I made him save me a chair because Deano doesn't sit down, but I said, ‘Boys, I want to sit with you and make sure we stay on the same page and help me out,’ so team effort and then obviously the boys stepped up.”

On the court, we faced some challenges as well, with Shea Ili missing the entire second half, while Chris Goulding sat out the final quarter and a half.

In their stead our bench stepped up, contributing 50 points, 25 of which came from Milton Doyle.

The import guard broke down how pleasing it was to see such a strong contribution from the bench, and touched on the importance of the victory.

“I think we see it in practice all the time, guys stepping up and making crazy plays in practice,” Doyle said.

“When you see them do it on the court, it's nothing new for the group, but it's very good for the fans and the crowd to see it and for them to just do it in the game. I’m proud of the boys.

“I think it was just important to get a win. We made some plays in the fourth, made a couple winning plays. 

I think there’s been a lack of doing that the last few games in the fourth and in the last three or four minutes of the game.

Just making those winning plays and getting that culture back, I think that was the big part of this win.

Melbourne United will next hit the floor against the Illawarra Hawks on Sunday afternoon from 2:30pm inside John Cain Arena.

The game is already sold out, but fans not in the arena can tune in via ESPN or Channel 10.

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