Tucker Time as United Claim Crucial Throwdown Win

Friday, December 16, 2022

Inspired by a spectacular 25-point first half from Rayjon Tucker, Melbourne United opened up a big Throwdown lead and held out the South East Melbourne Phoenix for the 92-76 win on Thursday night.

Tucker has been threatening a breakout dominant performance for some time now with his form building as he settles into the NBL, and it all came together at John Cain Arena as part of Indigenous Round.

Whether he was throwing down some monstrous dunks, taking it hard to the rack or draining three-pointers, Tucker couldn’t be stopped in the first half. By the break he had 25 points and Melbourne had an 11-point lead on their crosstown rivals.

The Phoenix did threaten a fightback on several occasions through the second half, but Melbourne held them out and weren’t about to let another one slip after what happened in Perth on Monday night when up eight with 45 seconds to go, and five with 10 seconds to play.

This time, Melbourne continued to have all the answers and it was only fitting that the final dagger came midway through the fourth with three-pointers from Dave Barlow and Chris Goulding – showing all their combined 783 games of experience.

Tucker would end up with the most ever points in a Throwdown with 33 on 11/15 shooting and 4/5 from downtown with Melbourne winning by 16 to improve to 7-11 while the Phoenix's three-game winning runs with them now 10-7.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">But before we go to the second half... Tucker has taken off ?? THAT IS BRILLIANT<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports + Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/ZAzO8SVBY6">pic.twitter.com/ZAzO8SVBY6</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1603322042681413632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 15, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

On top of Tucker's dynamic display, Chris Goulding had 16 points with four threes for Melbourne in his 399th NBL game with Shea Ili adding eight points and two steals in his 199th.

Mason Peatling contributed seven points and six rebounds, and Xavier Rathan-Mayes seven points, eight rebounds and five assists.

United coach Dean Vickerman saw a lot to like particularly in terms of shaking off what happened to close the game on Monday.

"We won every quarter which was really pleasing," Vickerman said.

"We still had our little patches at different times and didn’t start perfectly, but we built our way into it. At times our pace was really good tonight and I think that was a bit of a difference in us getting 16 fast break points to four.

"We've had some games close together and some travel, and see the willingness for them to go and sprint, and do those things was really good. Tuck had an amazing first half and his ability to get downhill, to play at pace and he shot the three ball really as well. He certainly got us a good margin at half-time."

Mitch Creek top-scored once more for South East Melbourne with 22 points and 10 rebounds with Trey Kell III adding 16 points, four rebounds and three assists, Gary Browne 16 points, four assists and four steals, and Alan Williams 15 points and 12 rebounds.

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell felt the biggest difference in the game was his team's frustrations at not being as effective down low as they'd like.

"Finishing around the rim probably has been a bit of a problem in the few games against Melbourne United," Mitchell said.

"They did a good job of protecting the rim and maybe we wore a few that weren’t rewarded as well, and I thought that got into our heads a little bit. I didn’t think our focus was great tonight and same with our discipline.

"We just have to be better than that at playing through contact. I thought their physicality really worried us."

The last Throwdown of the season began with the Phoenix establishing some dominance inside through Alan Williams and Mitch Creek as they went on an 8-2 start.

Eventually Melbourne steadied and when they did they scored eight of the next 10 points with a couple of strong finishes from Marcus Lee, including a huge dunk forcing Simon Mitchell into a timeout.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Creek goes ?? the ???? way<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports + Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/yZYdNPESEP">pic.twitter.com/yZYdNPESEP</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1603326047038058497?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 15, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

United would soon go on another 9-0 run to go from trailing by two to leading by seven, and it was Rayjon Tucker doing the igniting. He put up 11 points in the quarter and on the back of that Melbourne led 21-14.

United kept that momentum rolling to start the second quarter scoring the opening seven points with another five of those courtesy of Tucker including a three-pointer.

Chris Goulding scored five quick points of his own soon after and Melbourne hit the first five field goals of the quarter to open up a 33-17 advantage on the back of a 23 points to five run after trailing 12-10.

The Tucker show was in full swing and the dynamic Melbourne guard would go into half-time with a remarkable 25 points on the back of shooting 8/10 from the floor and 6/7 at the foul line.

He put an exclamation point on the half with a thunderous throwdown on the Xavier Rathan-Mayes alley-oop and as a result Melbourne led 47-36.

Another Goulding three to start the second half stretched Melbourne's lead back out to 12 before back-to-back Mason Peatling jumpers had it a 15-point advantage.

Every time the Phoenix threatened a comeback Melbourne would have all the answers and closing the third quarter with a long-range bomb from Tucker and then three-point play from Rathan-Mayes saw United lead 69-55.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Doesn't Rayjon ???? that one! The momentum is moving his way ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports + Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/uBClxGZs5E">pic.twitter.com/uBClxGZs5E</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1603318509567586306?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 15, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

While South East Melbourne kept fighting through the fourth quarter, they could never get closer than eight points. On both occasions they did Melbourne answered with three-pointers to go on to claim the 16-point win.

Both teams back up to play on Sunday with the Phoenix first up in Gippsland against the Sydney Kings while United host the Illawarra Hawks in the 400th game of Goulding, 300th of Newley and 200th of Ili.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 10

MELBOURNE UNITED 92 (Tucker 33, Goulding 16, Ili 8)

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 76 (Creek 22, Kell III 16, Browne 16)

BOX SCORE