Blaze tame Tigers
An energetic Gold Coast Blaze have climbed off the bottom of the NBL ladder with a 98-86 win over Melbourne Tigers at the Gold Coast Convention Centre on Wednesday night.
The victory marked the first time the Blaze had defeated the Tigers in five attempts since their inception three years ago.
Gold Coast were dominant in the first and fourth quarters to take the points from a Tigers squad who was already without Chris Anstey and lost Ben Knight to a knee injury in the opening minutes.
Chris Goulding had a career-high 17 points for the Blaze and import Erron Maxey had 29 of his own as the men in blue pulled away from Melbourne in the final stages.
Mark Worthington was valiant for the Victorian side with a game-high 31 points, but ran out off legs with very little support from his weakened squad.
In an end-to-end battle the visitors only got on top for short periods of the match and lacked the potency to constantly threaten the Blaze once they locked down on Worthington midway through the third.
After going toe-to-toe for the opening three quarters, Joey Wright started the final term with four guards - Goulding, Ayinde Ubaka, Adam Gibson and Tyson Demos – and ran a zone defence.
The Blaze little men took the ball away from the tiring Tigers enabling the home side to establish an eight-point lead early in the term which Melbourne failed to breach.
James Harvey had an uncharacteristic night on his home court, tallying just 15 points but the emergence of Goulding as an attacking weapon is sure to ease some of the load on the superstar shooting guard.
Looking to break a two-match losing streak the Blaze fired out of the blocks with young-gun Goulding and new import Maxey firing at will to open a double digit lead.
But at the other end of the court the home-side struggled to get a handle on Worthington who was looking confident inside, outside and at the charity stripe.
Melbourne's passers quickly recognised the opportunity and fed the big-man who racked up 11 of his points by the first break.
The visitors rallied in the second term, Luke Kendall drilled a pair of bombs and Sam Mackinnon showed his skills by rounding his man, then beating two more on the way to the hoop for a circus-shot, and one.
By half-time the Tigers had taken a one-point lead.
Both teams tightened in the third term and went tit-for-tat until the Blaze exploded in the final seconds to grab a four-point lead.
Goulding drove the lane and dished for Greg Vanderjagt to finish before Mike Vukona got a steal and handed off to Gibson who was ice-cold under pressure to nail a jump-shot as the siren sounded.
The Blaze took a four-point lead into the final term and never looked back.
Looking ahead the Gold Coast (2-3) have the quick turnaround to face the Taipans in Cairns on Friday night while the struggling Tigers (1-3) have a week to prepare for their next assignment – a road-trip to Adelaide.
Gold Coast Blaze 98 (Maxey 29, Goulding 17, Harvey 15)
Melbourne Tigers 86 (Worthington 31, Corletto 17, Johnson 12)
@ Gold Coast Convention Centre, 14/10/09. Crowd: 2,823.
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