Disappointment Strikes United Again

Melbourne United are once again rueing a disappointing loss after a stunning final 10 seconds on Monday night led to an 90-89 defeat to the Perth Wildcats.

United thought they finalised a win when they led by 5 points with 10 seconds left, before a string of errors from the team resulted in a Todd Blanchfield three-pointer while being fouled, an offensive rebound of the subsequent missed free throw, and an eventual game winner by Corey Webster.

Shea Ili missed a jump shot at the buzzer and United stumbled to 6-11 on the season.

A very blue Melbourne coach Dean Vickerman was disappointed with the mistakes and turnovers from United.

“We thought we did enough to win that one,” Vickerman said.

“I don’t think we got our rules right about rebounding...about what we practiced.

“Anytime we made errors tonight, the 21 points off turnovers was pretty huge.”

United was confident the win was secured with one minute on the clock, before the wild finish left them in disbelief.

Forward Dave Barlow voiced the team’s urge to get back up and start again, saying they can’t dwell on the loss for long.

“Obviously it’s gonna be hard to get to sleep (on Monday night) and we are gonna mourn this loss but life goes on, we’ve got to toughen up,” Barlow said.

“We’ve got to keep striving for success and that’s what we’ll do.

“It’s deflating of course, regardless of past performance, I think tonight’s loss would probably hurt the same.”

Melbourne is eighth on the ladder with a 6-11 record. They play the fourth and final Throwdown of the season against the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Thursday night at 7:30pm AEDT.