NBL: Melbourne United beat Perth Wildcats 87-74
Melo Trimble and Shawn Long took the game to the Wildcats as Melbourne United overcame the champions in Perth.
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Melbourne United closed the gap on the top two teams in the NBL with a dominant 13-point win over the Perth Wildcats at RAC Arena on Saturday. Melo Trimble and Shawn Long took turns in taking the game up to the Wildcats, and the reigning premiers had no answers to either of them with the final score 87-74 flattering the home side.
Trimble was a headache for the Wildcats from the opening tip-off. He dropped eight points in the opening term on his way to 23.
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Long also scored 23 points, almost half of them from big dunks that will feature on the highlight reel.
He completed a double-double, with 13 rebounds, as did Mitch McCarron. Long’s work on the boards also took away one of Perth’s great advantages, their second chance scoring.
In one and two-point victories over Melbourne earlier this the season, the Wildcats scored 18 and 19 points respectively from offensive rebounds that they turned into scores.
On Saturday, they had zero from this method by half-time and finished with only six for the game.
In fact, scoring was difficult for the Cats throughout. They were 16 points down at the last break having dropped just three of 20 attempts from long range. They finished with six from 27 attempts, while Melbourne dropped 11 triples. Bryce Cotton managed only 15 points at 29 per cent but was still Perth’s leading scorer.
The result ended a four-game winning streak for the second-placed Wildcats, on the same day ladder-leaders Sydney lost to the Brisbane Bullets. It was the first time Melbourne had won back-to-back games since claiming victory in six straight games from rounds five to eight.
Impressively, both games were on the road.
MELBOURNE UNITED 87 (R Trimble 23 S Long 23 M Mccarron 12) PERTH WILDCATS 74 (B Cotton 15 T White 14 N Kay 11) at RAC Arena