United veteran leads charge to down Hawks

Melbourne United have dug their way out of a 16-point fourth-quarter hole to steamroll Illawarra 115-106 in overtime in Game 1 of their best-of-three NBL Playoffs series.

Struggling to capture their best form after an 18-day break, the regular season champions finally clicked down the stretch at John Cain Arena on Thursday night to outscore the Hawks 23-7 in the last seven minutes of regulation and 15-6 in the extra period.

NBA championship winner and Melbourne veteran guard Matthew Dellavedova (30 points, 10 assists, seven rebounds, four steals) was masterful all evening at both ends, single-handedly carrying Melbourne through their mid-match malaise while also knocking down 6-of-10 from behind the three-point line.

Luke Travers was the other to come up huge for Melbourne finishing with 24 points, eight rebounds, three blocks and two steals on 10-of-16 shooting.

Centre Jo Lual-Acuil Jr shook off a tough first three quarters to end up with nine points, nine rebounds and four blocks with United plus-13 with him out there.

His Hawks combatant Sam Froling was dominant especially in the first half on his way to 26 points on 11-of-16 shooting with Gary Clark showing why he was named to the All-First Team with 22 points and 12 rebounds.

United captain Chris Goulding's layup with four seconds left in the final term on the back of Dellavedova's steal of Kyle Adnam's inbound neutralised Davo Hickey's tough bank moments earlier and forced the extension, in which Travers was unstoppable, with nine points.

Froling and Clark did as they pleased early to push the Hawks to a 29-25 quarter-time buffer.

Dellavedova's solo vigil in the second stanza momentarily handed the impetus back to United, who moved ahead 54-47 before suffering a prolonged struggle.

NBL legend and television commentator Derek Rucker described Melbourne's offence as "disgusting" as they were outscored 13-0 either side of the main break.

Illawarra import Tyler Harvey, silenced by Dellavedova and Shea Ili in the first two terms, finally got going after half-time and his long bomb stretched the visitors' cushion to 93-77 with less than seven minutes remaining.

Melbourne flicked a switch, finally knuckling down defensively, controlling the tempo and going on a tear at the other end which left the Hawks shell-shocked.

Game 2 is in Wollongong on Sunday.

HUNGRY JACKS NBL PLAYOFFS GAME 1 

MELBOURNE UNITED 115 (Dellavedova 30, Travers 24, Goulding 18)

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 106 (Froling 26, Clark 22, Harvey 15)

BOX SCORE