United play Norton celebration spoilers

Despite a dramatic late broadcast outage, Melbourne United have still not lost consecutive regular season NBL games in almost two years and not to the Brisbane Bullets in almost four after 120-103 victory.

A power failure to the broadcast equipment at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre with just over three minutes remaining delayed the game for almost half an hour, but it didn’t change the trajectory of the contest.

Melbourne were leading 104-89 at the time before going on to score the 17-point victory once play was restarted to have not lost consecutive regular season NBL games since December 2021.

They came into the match up off a 34-point hammering at the hands of the league-leading New Zealand Breakers but the Bullets made the flying start in the 350th game of captain Mitch Norton who did score the first basket.

Keandre Cook hit eight quick points to help them to the 10-2 start but Melbourne soon got it on their terms at a faster pace which saw them open a double-digit first half lead on the back of Chris Goulding and Rob Loe combining for six first half three-pointers.

Goulding hit his fifth triple of the game early in the third quarter before Loe nailed his third and fourth from deep later that period to put it at 16 before the final 17-point margin either side of the delay.

It's a 12th straight victory for Melbourne against Brisbane dating back to March 2021 and they still are yet to lose consecutive regular season games in the last 23 months having shot 57 from the floor and 16/32 from deep.

United hit back from coach Dean Vickerman's biggest ever loss on Monday night with Loe producing a 192-game career high of 30 points on 6/8 three-point shooting.

Goulding also put up 21 points and three assists on 5/10 shooting from deep with Jack White adding 17 points, 17 rebounds and five assists, Ian Clark 18, and Matthew Dellavedova 11 points and six assists.

Vickerman couldn’t have been happier with his team's response.

"Robbie's shot is something that we trust the whole time and we knew this game was coming so he got in a great rhythm tonight," he said.

"I thought CG was in a really good rhythm, Shea (Ili) came in and really pushed the pace, Whitey rebounded and we had a lot of people just doing what we needed them to do for the team.

"It resulted in some sharing of the basketball and we had 14 assists at half-time and we just really shared the ball, and played team basketball."

The Bullets were aggressive attacking the basket and went 29/33 from the foul line with Keandre Cook making 11/11 on his way to 23 points and five assists.

Casey Prather added 21 points and eight rebounds, Josh Bannan 14 points and six boards, Tyrell Harrison 13 points and six rebounds, and milestone man Norton 12 points, two boards, two assists and two steals.

After his 350th game, Norton was just focused on the positives the Bullets can take.

"That game tonight just proves that we can play alongside some of the top dogs in this league," he said.

"There's definitely areas that we can work on and have kind of been a common trait throughout this season, but at the same time it's fixable which is the positive sign."

The Bullets made the perfect start with the first bucket to milestone man Mitch Norton before Keandre Cook hit eight straight points to put the home team on top 10-2.

Melbourne soon hit back with 11 straight points themselves including a second three ball to Chris Goulding on their way to the 24-20 advantage by the end of one.

By the time Goulding and Loe connected from downtown and Melbourne's lead was out to double-figures midway through the second period before the Bullets made a charge back into the contest.

It started on consecutive three-point players to Tyrell Harrison before James Batemon hit seven straight individual points and it was back to a one-point ball game.

United kicked again with triples to Goulding and Loe who went into half-time combining for 28 points on 6/10 three-point shooting with their team shooting 53 per cent to Brisbane's 38 to lead 52-45.

Goulding hit his fifth three ball early in the second half and by the time Loe had dropped three more from deep himself to also have five for the game, United were on top 85-71 by the end of three.

The margin grew to 17 to start the final stanza with a three ball to Shea Ili and from there Melbourne were leading 104-89 once the game was forced to be stopped with the power outage.

Once it was restarted United added another 16 points and the Bullets 14 with Melbourne scoring the 17-point victory.

Having now played just eight games over the first eight rounds, the Bullets don't play again until taking on the Tasmania JackJumpers next Friday night.

United have now already played 12 games and back up to host the Wildcats on Saturday night.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

BRISBANE BULLETS 103 (Cook 23, Prather 21, Bannan 17)

MELBOURNE UNITED 120 (Loe 30, Goulding 21, Clark 18)

BOX SCORE