GF favourites ‘smacked in the face’ as United steal home court advantage in ‘fiery’ Game 1 win

Melbourne United stole back home-court advantage with a grinding, gritty 96-88 victory over Illawarra Hawks at WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong on Saturday night in the first game of the National Basketball League grand final series.

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Led by Australian Boomers playmaker Matthew Dellavedova’s game-high 18 points, United erased a 10-point half-time deficit to take a 1-0 lead back to Melbourne’s John Cain Arena for Game 2 of the best-of-five series next Wednesday.

Illawarra had averaged almost 101 points a game this season and finished on top of the ladder after the regular season with a 20-9 win-loss record, which included a 117-95 last-start thumping of Melbourne in Wollongong on January 18.

But United dragged the high-flying Hawks into a dogfight, holding them to just 14 points in the third quarter, then went on with the job in the final term to end Illawarra’s home-court winning streak at seven games.

“Melbourne come to Wollongong, smack the Hawks in the face and get home court advantage,” commentator Matt Russell said on ESPN.

Led by Dellavedova, Shea Ili and Marcus Lee, United shut down Illawarra sharpshooters Tyler Harvey and Trey Kell III and contained them to a combined total of just 15 points.

Apart from doing the job defensively on Kell, Dellavedova hit a killer three-pointer in the final minutes to end a 5-0 Hawks run and extend Melbourne’s lead to 87-80.

Melbourne, chasing their first championship since 2021 and third overall, eliminated the Hawks in the 2024 semi-finals before going on to lose 3-2 to Tasmania in the grand final.

HOT SHOTS

A Todd Blanchfield three-pointer in the final seconds gave Illawarra a 29-26 lead at the first break, reinforcing the Hawks’ reputation as the league’s fastest starters.

After a see-sawing first quarter, it marked the ninth straight home game in which the Hawks have led their opponents at quarter-time.

Blanchfield, who hit an equal career-high eight three-pointers in his 28-point haul in Illawarra’s 126-96 demolition of South East Melbourne Phoenix last Wednesday, had only entered the game a minute earlier.

The 33-year-old former Boomers representative maintained the hot hand in the second period, hitting two more triples and a mid-range jumper for 11 first-half points.

ROUGH START

Rival superstars Chris Goulding (Melbourne) and Trey Kell III (Illawarra) struggled to find their shooting stroke in the first half, managing just two points each.

Goulding, who made an NBL single-series record 22 three-pointers in Melbourne’s semi-final elimination of Perth, played less than seven minutes of the first half after picking up two early fouls.

He took just three shots and missed his only three-point attempt, but came up big when it mattered, knocking down back-to-back treys to give Melbourne a 75-71 lead early in the fourth quarter.

Kell piled on 26 first-half points in Illawarra’s semi-final series decider against Phoenix last Wednesday but was scoreless against United until the final minute of the half.

Closely guarded by Dellavedova, Kell was clearly frustrated at his inability to provide any scoring punch and raised his arms when his first bucket dropped.

Kell still contributed to Illawarra’s scoring effort, pulling down five first-half rebounds and handing out four assists – the final two for Sam Froling to help the Hawks build a 53-43 half-time lead.

LOE BLOW

Melbourne clawed back into the contest in the third quarter but their momentum halted when United big man Rob Loe was called for an unsportsmanlike foul, shoving Illawarra’s Lachlan Olbrich in the throat with his forearm.

It came amid a physical, fiery final few minutes of the third quarter as both teams were called for heavy fouls and struggled to make shots.

United opened the period on a 6-0 run to trim Illawarra’s 10-point lead to just four points, and by the end of the term only trailed 67-64, holding the Hawks to just 14 points and setting up their fourth-quarter surge.

— NCA NewsWire