United take control of Bullets in Bendigo

Dash Daniels made the perfect start in his hometown as Melbourne United cruised to the 98-66 win in Bendigo over the Brisbane Bullets that also kept their hopes alive of reaching the Ignite Cup presented by Disney+ Final alive.

The Brisbane Bullets' horror NBL season has become even worse with ex-NBA player Alex Ducas injured during their 98-66 thrashing from Melbourne United.

United have now claimed back-to-back wins for the first time since November as they look to emerge from a slump that had threatened their post-season hopes.

Tyson Walker (17 points, five assists) led the scoring for United, who have jumped Sydney into third spot on the ladder with a month left in the regular season.

They have also moved into second place on the ladder for the Ignite Cup, the NBL's new in-season tournament.

United began the game on an 11-3 run that started with local boy Daniels and ended in a tip-in dunk from Jesse Edwards, forcing a Bullets timeout.

The Bullets hurt themselves when the game was close; they missed six of their last seven field-goal attempts for the opening quarter to fall behind 10 points at the first change.

Brisbane also only hit 5/14 free-throw attempts for a first half that ended with a spectacular buzzer-beater from United's Walker at the half-court.

Walker's second half-court basket from as many games put United up 21 points at the main change and effectively ended the contest.

Had Milton Doyle not bungled an audacious attempt at a trick shot to dunk in the final minutes, and Kyle Bowen not missed an early open layup, the win would've finished as United's biggest of the season - currently 35 points.

No Melbourne player ended up laying more than 24 minutes with 12 of them all playing at least seven with Finn Delany bounce back from a scoreless outing in Perth for 15 points and seven rebounds.

Milton Doyle came off the bench for a second straight game and it worked well for 14 points, four rebounds and four assists while Chris Goulding landed 3/6 from deep for 13 points to go with three assists and a team high +25.

Jesse Edwards also had nine points, six rebounds and two blocks, Dash Daniels nine points and three boards, and Fabijan Krslovic seven points, eight rebounds and three assists.

The undoubted highlight for the Bullets once again was rookie big man Jacob Holt. Continuing to start in the absence of Tyrell Harrison, he made his first nine shots and finished with 23 points and eight rebounds on 9/10 shooting while hitting all four of his three-point attempts.

The positives were slim pickings after that and the Bullets also picked up another injury with Alex Ducas hurting a hip in the second quarter to join Harrison, Sam McDaniel, Javon Freeman-Liberty, Casey Prather, Dakota Mathias and Lamar Patterson in the casualty ward.

United now heads back to Perth after just being there for HoopsFest for a crucial match up with the Wildcats on Sunday while the Bullets are back home to host the Illawarra Hawks on Australia Day Monday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2025/26 – IGNITE CUP PRESENTED BY DISNEY+

MELBOURNE UNITED 98 (Walker 17, Delany 15, Doyle 14)

BRISBANE BULLETS 66 (Holt 23, Maldonado 11, Bradtke 6)

BOX SCORE