Melbourne United get physical chasing NBL glory

Melbourne United coach Dean Vickerman credited a shift in defensive mindset as the key to his team’s win over Illawarra.

Melbourne United’s Chris Goulding drives on Illawarra’s Rotnei Clarke

Melbourne United coach Dean Vickerman credited a shift in defensive mindset as the key to his team’s second-half dominance over the Illawarra Hawks in their 18-point victory.

Questions were raised about United’s toughness following their crushing loss to the Perth Wildcats but after some intense training during the NBL break, Vickerman saw his team lift after a scrappy first half to run out 91-73 winners at Hisense Arena on Monday night.

“It’s what we wanted to do, it’s what we practised for two weeks,” he said after his team turned the screws defensively to swing the match during a 22-8 third term. “It’s amazing when you are more physical: they (Illawarra) only shoot nine free throws on a team that averages 30 free throws every time they win a basketball game.”

United kept Illawarra off the foul line and reeled in 51 total rebounds compared to 28 for the Hawks, with 15 offensive boards resulting in a 24-8 edge in second-chance points.

With Demitrius Conger (suspension) and AJ Ogilvy (groin injury) out of the line-up, Hawks import Rotnei Clarke took charge of the offence as he tallied 19 points to tie the scores early in the second half.

But with multiple defenders aggressively denying Clarke the ball, United scored 19 straight points and kept the Illawarra sharpshooter off the scoresheet for the rest of the third quarter before finishing with 24 points.

Illawarra coach Rob Beveridge agreed that United’s defence went to another level after halftime but felt “a little bit annoyed” at the level of physicality shown to his leading scorer.

“We’d been waiting for a couple of weeks, chomping at the bit,” guard Chris Goulding said after working with import duo Casper Ware and Casey Prather to limit Clarke’s influence in the second half.

“We spoke at halftime about just staying with it and grinding it out and hopefully towards the back end of the game it would work in our favour, and it did.”

Goulding returned from representative duties with the Boomers to play his best game of the season, with four three-pointers in his 14-point tally.

“Early on I was just trying to fill in and find where I could help everyone out,” Goulding said after missing the early part of the season with appendicitis.

“That’s not a fantastic game by me offensively (tonight) but I tried to hang my hat defensively, which I think is probably what I should do going forward.”

The win sees fourth-placed United improve to a 6-5 win-loss record with the opportunity to move further ahead of the fifth-placed Taipans when they meet in Cairns on Saturday night.

AAP