United beat Sixers with Harrell, Ili ejected

Montrezl Harrell's frustration spilled over with the Adelaide 36ers excitement machine ejected early in the fourth quarter with Melbourne United retaining control for the eventual 113-93 home victory.

United were already in control leading 85-73 early in the fourth quarter when everything exploded at John Cain Arena after Harrell was called for an offensive foul after barrelling through United centre Rob Loe.

Harrell initially pushed Loe, United guard Shea Ili took exception to that and things threatened to get out of hand.

Just as things were calming down, Harrell and teammate Kendric Davis got involved in an ugly spat with Melbourne fans sitting courtside.

Adelaide coach Mike Wells was relatively happy with how it was all handled, but not when fans got physical with his club's general manager Matt Weston.

"By the time I got there, the fans were screaming at our players and being really, really aggressive towards them," he said.

"I've been in the NBA a long time and have seen a lot of different fights, but people there in the front row cannot do that.

"They can pay their money, they can cheer and yell at us, but as soon as they start putting their hands on people it's a different game. From what I saw, they put hands on our GM."

United coach Dean Vickerman was happy with his team's response and will let the rest be taken care of.

"The play started with us taking a charge and I thought we just did a good job of getting in front of people and putting our body on the line for the team," he said.

"Any time there's punches thrown and things like that, the league's going to deal with it the right way and I thought we supported each other through that period, and were pretty clear coming out the other side how we wanted to get the win."

When it was all settled, Harrell and Ili were ejected for either team and then the game went off without incident as United scored the eventual 20-point home victory even after Adelaide briefly got back within five.

The Sixers did a good job of drawing 26 fouls on United for to go 29/37 at the foul line with Harrell ending up with 6/12 and Davis 17/18.

Outside of that, United were in control most of the way after a 13-0 run in the opening minutes before leading by seven at quarter-time and 13 at the half with Chris Goulding hitting threes to close both periods.

The lead blew out to 17 in the third quarter and eventually Melbourne won by 20 to return to top spot at 10-4 after that dramatic opening to the fourth term.

Ian Clark hit 4/7 from long-range for 20 points with Flynn Cameron making a career-best 7/11 for 21 points to lead the scoring.

Goulding had another 19 along with Matthew Dellavedova contributing 15 points and seven assists, and Rob Loe 13 points and seven rebounds.

The 36ers continue to struggle on the road with one win from five games and now conceding 105.8 points in those to be 6-5 heading into the break with Davis producing another 30 points and 11 assists.

Harrell had 20 points before his ejection with DJ Vasiljevic adding 17 points.

The 36ers started well with the first four points attempting to turn around their road woes, but it didn’t last with United soon scoring the next 13 points with five of those to Rob Loe and four to Matthew Dellavedova.

Ian Clark and Kyle Bowen also hit first quarter three balls to keep Melbourne on top and then the quarter-time advantage was 29-22 thanks to a Chris Goulding triple on the buzzer after an Adelaide mistake on the inbounds pass.

Loe then hit another from downtown to open the second quarter to push Melbourne's lead to double-figures and it remained that way the rest of the half despite Adelaide living at the foul line.

The Sixers went 17/25 at the stripe for the first half with Kendric Davis and Montrezl Harrell combining for 14/21 of those, but they only managed 29 other points with Melbourne piling on 59 including another Goulding three ball on the buzzer for the 13-point edge.

With his Tall Blacks teammate Shea Ili picking up a fourth foul, Flynn Cameron took over late in the third quarter for Melbourne with three triples in quick succession as the lead blew out to 17 points and was still 12 by three quarter-time.

After all the drama of the start of the fourth quarter with Harrell and Ili taking an early shower, the Sixers worked back into the contest to get back within five with six minutes to play.

They couldn’t quite keep the momentum going, though, and when Cameron hit a sixth triple of the game Melbourne were back up 10 before winning by 20.

Both teams now go into the FIBA break before having home games when they come back with the 36ers hosting the Tasmania JackJumpers Saturday week and then United at home to the Sydney Kings on the Sunday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

MELBOURNE UNITED 113 (Cameron 21, Clark 20, Goulding 19,)

ADELAIDE 36ERS 93 (Davis 30, Harrell 20, Vasiljevic 17)

BOX SCORE