Travers, Waardenburg shine for United

Joe Ingles pulled on Melbourne United colours for the first time and the combination of Luke Travers and Sam Waardenburg with their all-round talents looked exciting ahead of NBL27 in the pre-season opening 83-68 win over the visiting B League United.

United were playing their first game of a new era with a whole new playing group under head coach Jacob Chance.

They took on the Japanese representative team on Sunday at Courtside Melbourne at HoopCity who were fresh off a big loss to the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Thursday.

With keen onlookers Josh Giddey and Jock Landale, United unveiled their new-look front court featuring two of the most versatile talents in the league and the signs were more than exciting for NBL27 between Waardenburg and Travers.

It was a United team not yet featuring superstar import Cole Anthony along with Josh Oduro, Chris Goulding, Fabijan Krslovic fresh off helping the North Bears to an NBL1 East Grand Final, and Jensen Bradtke after winning an NBL1 North championship at the Gold Coast Rollers.

But they made a strong start with 27 points to 19 in the first quarter with seven points each from Travers and Waardenburg while United got to the foul line 14 times to just two from B League United.

But the Japanese team fired back in the second quarter with 24 points to 14 to cut the Melbourne lead to 45-43 by half-time despite the 11 points, six rebounds and three assists to Travers, and 10 points, four boards and three assists to Waardenburg.

It then remained a tight battle in the third quarter with United clinging to the 59-58 edge by three quarter-time but Melbourne pulled away with 24 points to 10 in the last term for the 15-point victory.

Melbourne might have only shot 40 per cent from the field and 7/31 from the outside but they did pull down 17 offensive rebounds and got to the foul line 13 more times than the B League team.

Waardenburg has made the move from the Cairns Taipans to United this season and he provided 22 points, seven rebounds and seven assists with 3/6 shooting from deep.

Travers is making his return to Melbourne too and he had 19 points, 12 rebounds and six assists while five-time Olympian and 810-game NBA veteran Ingles is returning to the NBL and had 11 points, five rebounds and three assists in 21 minutes.

Malith Machar added 10 points as well for Melbourne with Kyle Bowen contributing seven points and eight rebounds, Harry Neilson five points, seven rebounds and two big blocks, and Shea Ili four points, three boards, two assists and two steals.

It was a competitive showing from B League United with Gakuto Arai again top scoring with 17 points on 3/7 three-point shooting with Takuto Nakamura adding 12 points and six rebounds, and Higen Hasegawa 11 points and four boards.

MELBOURNE UNITED 83 – B LEAGUE UNITED 68

Melbourne United

Sam Waardenburg – 22 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists
Luke Travers – 19 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists
Joe Ingles – 11 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists
Malith Machar – 10 points
Kyle Bowen – 7 points, 8 rebounds

B League United

Gakuto Arai – 17 points, 3 rebounds
Takuto Nakamura – 12 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists
Higen Hasegawa – 11 points, 4 rebounds