United shoot clear on back of win in Perth

Melbourne United has taken a giant leap towards securing the NBL top spot turning the tide on the Perth Wildcats from eight days ago with an inspired 99-91 win at RAC Arena on Thursday night.

Just eight days after Perth outplayed Melbourne on their home floor eight days ago, United turned the tide in all areas and caught fire early thanks to Chris Goulding, and had players step up the rest of the way to secure the critical eight-point victory.

It was Melbourne's first game outside Victoria since April 4 and they embraced playing in front of almost 10,000 Wildcats fans to improve to a 23-6 record on the season. The loss sees Perth slip to 20-8 and that gap is going to be tough now for the 'Cats to overcome in the battle for top spot in the run home.

United took much better care of the ball with just the 12 turnovers and four in the second half while only giving up 11 offensive boards, and then shooting 15/37 from three-point range.

Goulding put up 26 points on 6/16 shooting from deep in the finish while Jock Landale had a tantalising match up with John Mooney and had 19 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

Mitch McCarron added 14 points and six assists for United and Yudai Baba 11 points, three rebounds and three steals.

United coach Dean Vickerman was delighted with the turnaround in performance from eight days ago against the same opposition. 

"We struggled to score a little bit against them in Melbourne and they did a great job with their coverages, but we had a good practice response before the South East game about the things we needed to fix before this one," Vickerman said. 

"And tonight there were some keys with taking care of the basketball when we were sloppy with it last time we played them, and we still had eight turnovers at the half but only four in the second half. We did a solid job on the boards and then we had foul discipline. 

"They shot 10 free throws in the second quarter but other than that we had good foul discipline and didn’t overreact to situations and kept our heads. We shot the ball pretty well and had a lot of looks, but not too many of them were poor looks and making 15 threes for us was pretty huge."

Perth got 48 points between Mooney and Bryce Cotton, but they needed more help. Mooney put up another 24 points, 14 rebounds, five assists and three steals with Cotton producing 24 points and three assists on 10/23 shooting with 1/9 from deep.

Mitch Norton also had 12 points, Jesse Wagstaff nine and Luke Travers eight with some encouraging energy late.

Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson was frustrated with the slow start from which they could never really recover from.

"We didn’t start at the right level and there was a 15-point spread early. It was disappointing how we started," Gleeson said.

"I'm proud of how we finished but that's all it takes against a good team. I think they shot their first three threes and then had three layups for their first 15 points of the game. That's not what we wanted to put our stamp on the game and I'm really disappointed with how we started."

Perth started well with the first two buckets from Bryce Cotton and Luke Travers, but then Chris Goulding helped Melbourne take over. He had three triples on the board in no time as Mitch McCarron helped the lead to 16-7, and then threes from Jock Landale and Yudai Baba saw it grow to 24-9.

John Mooney went on an individual 7-0 run to bring Perth back into it and then Cotton nailed a three ball before the buzzer on quarter-time to cut Melbourne's lead to seven.

Melbourne maintained their edge through the first half of the second term thanks to triples from David Barlow and Scotty Hopson, but then Todd Blanchfield sparked a Perth 7-0 run as they tied up the scores.

But a three-point play from Jo Lual-Acuil, and three balls from Goulding and Barlow leading into half-time saw Melbourne still hold a 51-46 edge.

Melbourne was able to pull away further during the third term firstly following an and-one play from Landale and another three from Goulding. They then put together a 6-0 run to be up 10, and still eight by three quarter-time.

Hopson came out and hit a couple of huge shots to start the fourth term as Melbourne's lead got out to as much as 14 points. 

Two crucial turnovers into the back court late from Wildcats development player Luke Travers saw McCarron go in for a layup and then Goulding hit the match-sealing three as United went on to win by eight in a crucial road victory.

The Wildcats now head to Brisbane to take on the Bullets on Saturday while Melbourne heads straight home again to take on the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Sunday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 18

PERTH WILDCATS 91 (Mooney 24, Cotton 24, Norton 12)

MELBOURNE UNITED 99 (Goulding 26, Landale 19, McCarron 14) 

BOX SCORE