IT WAS far from convincing for a premiership contender against a cellar dweller, but Melbourne United flew home from Cairns with the win in the bag as Round 14 of the NBL tipped off last night. In a relatively low-scoring encounter, United did what they had to do and posted a win over the struggling Snakes to snap a four-game losing streak of their own.

At the Cairns Convention Centre, both sides struggled with accuracy from the field, but in the end, the work of veteran Chris Goulding, and the board crashing support from Jack White and Marcus Lee enabled the visitors to secure a 10-point win, 76-66.

It looked like United would completely blow the Taipans out of the water in the first half, racing out to a 25-13 lead at quarter time, which had mounted to 17 points by the main break (46-29). Though that enabled United to get plenty of use of their bench – five players had double-digit minutes to go with the five starters who had the same – things got a little close for comfort at times.

Cairns closed the gap to eight points with a quarter to play courtesy of a 22-13 third term, and got within six points with three minutes to play in the match. However United took no chances with most of its starting five back out on the court, scoring the next six points to blow the lead back out to 12, before Kyle Adnam nailed a consolation jump shot in the last few seconds.

Goulding finished with Player of the Match, scoring 19 points – albeit at just 35 per cent from the field – with four triples and five rebounds, while White (14 points, eight rebounds) and Lee (eight points, 10 rebounds) were key in winning the boards battle. Matthew Dellavedova shared his experience on court with a match-high six assists, while Ian Clark putting up 12 points in 23 minutes coming off the bench.

Tanner Groves was key for the Taipans, putting up 20 points – seven of 10 from the field and 3/3 from long-range – as well as six rebounds, four assists and two blocks. The other main scorer was Adnam (12 points), but ultimately the Snakes struggled offensively with the usually damaging Taran Armstrong hitting just one of nine from the field, though he did finish with five rebounds and four assists. Sam Waardenburg (seven points, six rebounds) got five of his points from the charity stripe.

Melbourne United coach Dean Vickerman said it was pleasing to end the year with a victory and working so well defensively.

“It definitely feels better to finish the year getting a win and there’s been some things that we’ve wanted to continue to get better at,” he said.

“The way we rebounded the ball the other night against Tasmania and repeated that one again that’s an area that we’ve made good improvements on the last couple of weeks. “Holding any team on their home floor to 66 is a good effort so we’ve really picked it up at that end.”

For the Taipans, it was a 14th consecutive loss, though coach Adam Forde admired his troops’ willingness to fight back from a large deficit.

“We just really struggled to score and Melbourne probably are sitting there saying the same thing too with getting some good looks they felt could have dropped,” he said.

“The fact that we brought it back from 20 down in such a grindy game like it was I’ll continue to give the boys credit for continuing to compete and fight.”

Cairns Taipans now set their sights on New Zealand Breakers in a huge New Year’s Eve clash in what will be a battle of the bottom two sides. Melbourne United on the other hand get to rest up for the remainder of 2024 – having played two more games than any other side – and next suit up in Adelaide on January 4 against the 36ers.