3 minute read

Chris Goulding fired off a game-high 46 points as Melbourne United rallied to beat the Perth Wildcats 106-97 in an entertaining NBL contest.

Chris Goulding has produced one of the NBL's greatest individual performances to help Melbourne United overcome a huge deficit and the loss of Jack White to injury in a 106-97 win over the Perth Wildcats.

Trailing by 19 points during a horror second period at John Cain Arena on Saturday night, United were struggling when White went down with a left calf issue before halftime.

But they rallied behind leader Goulding, who stunned the visitors in a game-winning display after the main break.

Goulding scored 25 points in the third period alone and finished with a game-high 46 points on 16-of-32 shooting.

It was the third-highest individual tally by any player during the 40-minute game era.

The veteran shooter connected on 9-of-21 triples as he extended his run of scoring from long range to 78 consecutive games.

"It feels good," Goulding said on the ESPN broadcast.

"We felt almost defeated at halftime because we just weren't ourselves.

"Our offence was ok but they shot the ball incredibly well and put us in actions where we weren't guarding well enough.

"We made some adjustments, we made some shots, but the defensive side of it was really pleasing."

Goulding poured in 22 points during a four-minute purple patch in the third period and admitted he had his eye on his career-best mark of 50 during the final minutes of the game.

"I was just being aggressive," Goulding said.

"Whitey hurt himself and he's such a big part of what we do, so everyone needed to lift.

"They did a great job, once I hit a couple, to keep milking it and keep trying to find me, and I managed to hit some."

Marcus Lee (13 points), Rob Loe (11) and White (12) also finished in double figures as Melbourne improved to 9-4 for the season.

But 2023 NBA champion White's calf injury is cause for concern going forward.

"He was able to kind of run up and down on it for a little bit, so I don't think the severity of it is too bad," Melbourne coach Dean Vickerman said.

"But calves are calves and we'll scan it and see what it looks like."

Perth (5-6) got strong service from import Kristian Doolittle (21 points) and Next Star Izan Almansa (19), but managed just 32 points in the second half.

Wildcats coach John Rillie - who once made 10 threes in a game for Townsville during the 2009 finals series - had no answer to Goulding.

"You tip your hat to his performance," Rillie said post-game.

"For us, it's emotional and disappointing right now with how that went.

"When our heads are in a better space, we'll deal with that."

Almansa and Doolittle caused problems for Melbourne early and Perth posted their highest first-half score of the season, leading 65-51 at halftime.

Enter Goulding, who lifted his team off the canvas with a vintage shooting display.

Goulding scored more than twice as many points as the entire Wildcats team during the third period, with Melbourne winning the quarter 32-12.

It gave them an 83-77 buffer heading into the final period, and they resisted everything Perth threw at them down the stretch.

Fittingly, it was Goulding's ninth triple and another tough bucket close to the rim that sealed the result for Melbourne in the final stages.