Delany delivers, Doyle dazzles in United debuts

It might take some getting used to seeing him in Melbourne United colours, but Milton Doyle impressed first up for his new team in the 116-91 NBL pre-season win against the Cairns Taipans.

It was a first pre-season hit out for United as they hosted the Taipans at Casey Stadium in Melbourne. Doyle wasted no time looking right at home in United colours having cemented himself as a championship winning star at the Tasmania JackJumpers.

Doyle finished with 22 points to go with four rebounds, four assists and two steals in his 22 minutes of court time to go with shooting 8/14 from the field.

Melbourne started the game on fire by putting up 41 points in the first quarter including going on a 17-0 scoring run, but considering the names missing for the Snakes there wasn’t a whole lot to be concerned about for coach Adam Forde.

The result was never in jeopardy with United ending up leading by as much as 31 points throughout the game and settling on the 25-point win with Chris Goulding, Shea Ili and Jesse Edwards to come into the group ahead of NBL26.

Another new face to Melbourne but who is familiar within the NBL, Finn Delany, also looked good in his first game with United with 15 points, five rebounds and two assists.

Tanner Krebs also produced 14 points with 4/7 three-point shooting while Kyle Bowen added 12 points, three boards and three assists.

New import point guard Tyson Walker also had 12 points, three steals and two assists in his first appearance while NBL1 South reigning MVP Tom Wilson showed encouraging signs with 11 points and two rebounds with 3/5 three-point shooting.

Cairns were still without FIBA Asia Cup winning pair Jack McVeigh and Reyne Smith along with import trio Admiral Schofield, Ashton Hagans and Marcus Lee along with Sam Waardenburg.

They could well be their six most important players, but without them, Kyrin Galloway stepped up with 24 points and nine rebounds with 4/6 three-point shooting.

Lachlan Barker also delivered 12 points, two assists and two steals, Jed Richardson 11 points and five rebounds, Kody Stattmann 10 points and two assists, Alex Higgins-Titsha 10 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks, and Kian Dennis seven points with a couple of nice flushes.

Both teams have one more game to play ahead of the NBL Blitz next week in Canberra with United staying in Melbourne for a pre-season Throwdown against the South East Melbourne Phoenix at the State Basketball Centre on Saturday night.

The Taipans return home to cairns to play host to the Brisbane Bullets on Sunday in a pre-season Sunshine Stoush.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL PRE-SEASON 2025/26

MELBOURNE UNITED 116 (Doyle 22, Delany 15, Krebs 14)

CAIRNS TAIPANS 91 (Galloway 24, Barker 12, Richardson 11)

BOX SCORE

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