United dig deep to knock off Hawks

There is something about these two teams playing one another and they played out another Thursday night classic despite being down star guards with Melbourne United holding on in a thriller to beat the Illawarra Hawks 92-87.

Despite being without Shea Ili and Matthew Dellavedova in their back court, Melbourne looked to have the game won up six with just under 30 seconds to play, but the drama was just beginning.

Hyunjung Lee hit a three to bring the Hawks back within three before initially a foul was called on Davo Hickey who was running with Chris Goulding. That call was cancelled with the shot clock not starting, but Justin Tatum was called for a technical in the process.

Goulding hit that extra point before United turned the ball over in the back court and Todd Blanchfield, in game 412, landed a three to make the margin one.

Jack White (12 points, 19 rebounds) made the winning free throws after that for Melbourne as they once again hit back strongly from a defeat to score the five-point victory at the WIN Entertainment Centre.

Goulding finished with 25 points for Melbourne on 5/11 three-point shooting with Ian Clark delivering 14 points and four assists, and Flynn Cameron a career-best night in the absence of Ili and Dellavedova with 18 points, four rebounds and four assists.

Melbourne coach Dean Vickerman struggled to make sense of the decisive final minute of the game, in particular the decision to wipe off the play and deny United two free throws for Hickey's foul on Goulding.

"There was a lot going on, right? I'm pretty sure I had a timeout left and I'm not sure where that one disappeared to as well," he said.

"I needed it down the stretch. There were a couple of errors, I thought, coming from the bench tonight."

The Hawks are now 5-2 with both their defeats coming at home with the loss of point guard Trey Kell III to back spasms in the second quarter a turning point in the game.

Davo Hickey top-scored for Illawarra after just signing on long-term earlier in the day with 17 points, six assists, three steals and two blocks with Sam Froling adding 16 points and six boards.

Blanchfield also had 12 points on 4/7 three-point shooting with Tyler Harvey still having 12 points and three assists despite shooting 4/14 from the field.

Hawks coach Justin Tatum had plenty to get off his chest post-match.

"I don't know if it was a first-time or rookie referee that wants to make a call like that, but we're just happy that Chris Goulding didn't hurt himself flopping in front of us," he said.

"I'm glad that he's injury-free, but at the end of the day the officials at that time unfortunately just made a bad decision, a bad call.

The respect factor with the officials and our group in general was just a poor display, a poor display, but they didn't cost us that game.

"Us as a team didn't play to the 40 minutes, I felt. But it shouldn't be left in the refs' hands, it should obviously be left to the players."

Melbourne started well with the game's first four points even without Matthew Dellavedova and Shea Ili before turning that into an 8-2 start with four of those points coming from stand-in starter Flynn Cameron.

The Hawks did answer back with their own 15-5 run following that topped by a dunk on the offensive rebound from Davo Hickey.

Illawarra went on to be leading 21-18 by the end of one and things were getting away from Melbourne with the Hawks scoring the first seven points of the second term topped off with a three ball from Todd Blanchfield.

However, Melbourne dug deep and a triple from Joel Foxwell had them back within two and then a block from Marcus Lee on Trey Kell III led to a Chris Goulding three ball to give United the lead.

Kell also fell awkwardly after that block and left the game with back spasms not to return with Melbourne going into the half-time break leading 40-37.

Jack White and Cameron combined for the opening five points of the second half for Melbourne's lead to grow to eight before a couple of minutes later Goulding landed another from downtown to push it to a double-figure advantage.

Sam Froling was keeping Illawarra in touch and then Tyler Harvey finally made his first field goal of the night with two minutes to play in the third quarter.

Melbourne were clinging to the 59-58 three quarter-time edge and the stage was set for another eventful fourth quarter between these two teams.

Goulding and Harvey traded three-pointers to open the final period as the teams continued to swap being in the lead before Goulding's fifth three of the game helped United get out to a six-point lead again with two minutes on the clock.

It was another dramatic finish but in the end Melbourne got the job done with the five-point win to improve to 5-3 on the season.

Both teams back up again with a second game in Round 6 with the Hawks away to the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Saturday night while United try to end their run of outs to the Cairns Taipans at home on Sunday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 87 (Hickey 17, Froling 16, Blanchfield 12, Harvey 12)

MELBOURNE UNITED 92 (Goulding 25, Cameron 18, Clark 14)

BOX SCORE