United's Good Friday soured by White's Achilles

Melbourne United stretched its winning run to four and welcomed Scotty Hopson successfully back into the line-up in a 95-85 Good Friday win over the Cairns Taipans but the result was soured with an Achilles injury to rookie Jack White.

Immediately after the game United coach Dean Vickerman confirmed the worst that White has ruptured his Achilles marking a virtual 12-month rehabilitation making any joy over the solid performance in a 10-point win to make it four in-a-row short lived.

White had just returned from a hand injury last Saturday against the South East Melbourne Phoenix, and he was looking good again on Friday. His energy and athleticism was morale-lifting, and his offensive rebounding, defence and finishing at the rim got United rolling.

But midway through the third quarter he felt a pop in his lower leg and now Vickerman has confirmed the worst possible result.

"We absolutely feel for Jack right now and it certainly takes the gloss off winning a little bit," Vickerman said.

"He did such a great job with the rehab on his hand and started to look like himself today again by being above the rim, in transition, blocking shots and then it was the post feed that he tried to make where it happened. Jawai deflected it but it looked like on the way up he just ruptured his Achilles. 

"We'll scan it and do everything, but it's a pretty significant rupture and I don’t think it's hanging by too much right now. We expect him to probably miss 12 months before he gets back on the floor again. It's a huge loss for us and it's devastating for him to start his pro career with a couple of big injuries."

Aside from that, it was another good performance from Melbourne as they improve to 14-5 on the season, and this was a breakout offensive showing after three dominant defensive performances.

Jock Landale was remarkably efficient for 20 points, 11 rebounds and four assists on 8/9 shooting while Scotty Hopson successfully returned with 14 points, eight boards and four assists.

Chris Goulding had another 16 points on 4/11 from deep with Jo Lual-Acuil contributing 10 points and Yudai Baba eight.

The Taipans fell 13 points down during the second quarter but kept fighting in the absence of regular starters Kouat Noi and Majok Deng.

Cam Oliver had a fascinating battle with Landale for 19 points and 12 rebounds with Jordan Ngatai continuing his career-best form with 17 points and five boards while hitting 4/6 from downtown.

Nate Jawai and Scott Machado finished with 13 points each, and Jarrod Kenny 12 on the back of nailing four three-pointers.

Taipans coach Mike Kelly was again proud of the fight the Snakes showed, but again it's frustrating they can't quite deliver it for 40 minutes to get some of these wins.

"The guys played hard and the guys have played hard so it's not like this was a total change of effort from the guys against a tough team who kind of nutted it out longer than we did," Kelly said. 

"They were able to grind and we stayed in it with some shot making from guys and controlled the boards a little bit better, or I should say didn’t let them control the boards as much as they did in the first half. We played some good basketball, it just hasn’t been for 40 minutes consistently."

Melbourne made the first break in the game to lead 17-10 on the back of a three ball from Jack White, and then a pair of them to Chris Goulding. 

Jo Lual-Acuil came on to spark Melbourne too with seven quick points and then Jock Landale finished off with four, but Nate Jawai steadied Cairns to hold United's lead to five after one.

Melbourne threatened to pull right away with it early in the second with Cairns producing some careless turnovers from which United made them pay fully during a 10-0 run as their lead expanded to 13.

It was out to 15 when Goulding nailed another from beyond the arc, but Cairns closed out the half nicely with a couple more threes from Jordan Ngatai, and then a couple from Cam Oliver to cut United's edge to 49-45 at the half.

It was the best possible second half start for Melbourne with seven straight points before another strong finish from White and a three from Goulding. But the Snakes weren’t going away and three triples in just a couple of minutes from Jarrod Kenny had them back with seven.

Oliver made that four with White hobbling off the floor for Melbourne, but United did steady with the last five points of the quarter to be up 73-64.

The Taipans found some momentum early in the fourth to get back to within four, but United responded including a big and-one play from Landale. 

The dagger blow eventually was a triple from Hopson with a minute remaining and despite the fight from the Snakes, United maintained control enough to win by 10.

Both teams now do it all again against one another on Sunday at the Cairns Pop-Up Arena.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 12

MELBOURNE UNITED 95 (Landale 20, Goulding 16, Hopson 14)

CAIRNS TAIPANS 85 (Oliver 19, Ngatai 17, Jawai 13, Machado 13) 

BOX SCORE