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Melbourne United have kept their NBL finals hopes alive with a gutsy 89-76 win over the Sydney Kings.
With both teams needing a victory to keep themselves in finals calculations, it was United who handled the pressure better in front of a record crowd at Qudos Bank Arena.
United veteran David Andersen starred for Melbourne, pouring in 21 points off the bench, in just his second game back from a knee injury.
Melbourne has struggled to find meaningful contributions outside of Chris Goulding and Casper Ware in recent weeks, but found a raft of helpers as import Josh Boone recorded a first career NBL double double.
Guard pairing Ware (18 points) and Goulding (16) were both solid, as United recorded their 12th win on the season.
Led by Andersen and Goulding, Melbourne were excellent from beyond the arc all night, hitting 12/23 of their three-point attempts.
United jumped out the blocks, at one stage leading a shell-shocked Sydney by 19 points early in the second period.
The Kings rallied to get the margin back to just two points during the third, but two huge threes from Andersen helped Melbourne steady in the fourth, eventually winning by 13 points, their sixth straight victory over the Kings in Sydney.
Brad Newley was the Kings’ best with 19 points on his return from a hamstring injury.
The loss leaves Sydney with a record of 13-14, with a trip to Perth their final game of the regular season.
Melbourne (12-13) still have three games left, and finals remain a possibility if they keep winning.
“Great fight by the guys, to hold Sydney to 76 points is very hard, that was a hard fought win,” Andersen told Fox Sports.
“We got three more big games coming up to try and make these playoffs, we are just taking it game by game, we have another one [on Monday] so it’s all go for us.”
Next up for United, they host Illawara at Hisense Arena on Monday night.
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