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Melbourne United have notched their second last-second win in a row, Chris Goulding's 10th three-pointer seeing off the New Zealand Breakers
Chris Goulding has drained a massive three-pointer with 0.9 seconds remaining - his 10th of the game - to give Melbourne United a gripping, last-gasp 91-89 NBL victory over the New Zealand Breakers.
After Matt Mooney's trey at the other end with 4.7 seconds on the clock put the Breakers in front by a point at the TSB Stadium in New Plymouth on Monday night, United called a time-out and drew up a play for their irrepressible captain, who delivered grandly.
"That was the play this set up - it worked out," Goulding said of his match-winning bucket.
"As a group, we really needed and wanted this win.
"This is a feeling that we're chasing and want more of."
Goulding poured in 42 points, including 10-of-19 from outside, to single-handedly mastermind Melbourne's 29-18 fourth quarter after NZ led 71-62 at the last change.
United's next best scorer was Shea Ili, who finished with 15 points.
Mooney (19 points), Karim Lopez (19) and Sam Mennenga (18) led the valiant charge for the Breakers, who, after conceding the first seven points of the game, used a 9-0 burst to lead 26-25 at quarter-time.
In the first two minutes of the second term, United chalked up five fouls and no points, their big men Rob Loe and Marcus Lee having major issues with 7-foot-6 giant Tacko Fall, who drew seven fouls in seven minutes.
But the Breakers were unable to capitalise, going 5-of-14 from the free-throw line for the first half, Fall missing five of his from the charity stripe.
Play was delayed for more than 12 minutes near the end of the second quarter when the game-clock and shot-clock both froze.
Technicians tried to repair the malfunctioning technology, before manual shot-clocks were brought in and placed behind each baseline.
When play finally resumed, Goulding buried his fifth three-pointer on the cusp of halftime, then opened the third frame with his sixth trey to put Melbourne up 44-42.
Mennenga then took charge to give NZ back control and a 71-62 three-quarter-time lead.
Melbourne wrestled back all the momentum to start the fourth, Goulding's eighth three-pointer followed by Jack White's put-back tying the scores at 73-73.
The fourth stanza continued to be neck-and-neck before Goulding, appropriately, had the final say.
"That's what he (Goulding) does," Breakers coach Petteri Koponen said.
"He hit 10 threes, we missed 10 free throws. That's the game.
"We were executing the game plan pretty well - we were there all game."
