Hawks survive scare against United to claim first away win of the season

Off the back of a win against their cross-town rivals, Melbourne United returned to John Cain Arena in hopes they would once again leave victorious.

Considering their opponents were the 1-6, bottom of the standings Illawarra Hawks, Jacob Chance's men would have felt confident, but the first quarter wasn't as easy as they'd have liked. Led by a strong start from Makur Maker, who recorded eight points and two rebounds in the first quarter, the Hawks gave United a run for their money early on. Melbourne led 27-21 at quarter time, but there seemed to be plenty of life in this Illawarra team.

That was only further proven in the second quarter, where the Hawks not only took the lead, but extending it to thirteen points, silencing the home crowd with a 56-43 lead at half-time.

It was a team effort from the Hawks, who had three different players tied on a game-high twelve points, those being Makur Maker, Sam Froling, and former United point guard Milton Doyle, who was putting on a show in front of his former fans. Sam Waardenburg was United's leading scorer with eleven points, while Joe Ingles had nine points and a game-high five assists, but it was clear something had to change for Melbourne in the second half, and quickly.

Clearly not willing to go down without a fight, United came out hot in the second half, cutting Illawarra's lead to as low as six throughout the third quarter. After being held to four points in the first half, Cole Anthony came into his own with nine points in the third quarter, while Josh Oduro was equally as important in United's comeback attempt.

But despite beginning to pull the momentum back, United simply had no answer for Makur Maker, who scored eight of Illawarra's final thirteen third quarter points, taking his tally up to a game-high twenty. The Hawks led 78-65 at the end of the third quarter, and United only had ten minutes to overturn a thirteen point deficit.

To the delight of the fans inside John Cain Arena, United came into the fourth quarter and played the best basketball they had played all day. In the first eight minutes of the final quarter, United found themselves only two points behind after a 20-9 run, with Cole Anthony and Josh Oduro combining for twelve of those twenty points.

And after Cole Anthony hit a mid-range shot to tie the game with just under two minutes remaining, it was clear this game was going down to the wire.

Anthony would get another chance to give United the lead forty seconds later, and while he missed, Oduro tipped the ball in, sending the John Cain Arena crowd into a frenzy. However, the jubilation didn't last long, with the Hawks stealing the lead right back after a three-pointer from Makur Maker.

United had their chances to take the lead back, but following multiple empty possessions, had no choice but to foul, down 90-89 with 4.5 seconds left.

Milton Doyle was the man in charge of converting the free throws for Illawarra, which, to the delight of his former fans, he didn't do on the first attempt. Doyle would make the second free throw, but with just under five seconds left and only down two points, Melbourne had a chance to steal the game from under Illawarra's noses.

Unfortunately for United, disaster struck. Whatever play Jacob Chance drew up in the final timeout, we'll never truly know, as Cole Anthony slipped and lost possession. Luke Travers managed to throw up a prayer, but to no avail, resulting in Illawarra pulling off one of the upsets of the season. It's only the second win the Hawks have recorded all season, and their first one on the road.

Cole Anthony, despite his blunder on the final play, still had another superb outing for United, ending with a game-high 24 points, along with six rebounds and five assists. Nonetheless, the player of the game was awarded to Makur Maker, who recorded 23 points, six rebounds, a steal and a block.

After only signing with Illawarra seventeen days ago, Maker has already made an immediate impact in Illawarra, which even coach Justin Tatum didn't see coming.

"Yeah, he is (better than I expected). He's only been here two and a half weeks. When we played South East (Melbourne), he was off the plane on Friday and played that Sunday, and had 14+ points. We know once he gets his feet up under him, his confidence, he'll find his shots within the offense."

Meanwhile, first-year United coach Jacob Chance was honest about his team after their underwhelming 3-4 start to the season.

"I want to be the team that's in control more often than not. We've had a couple of these games early in the season, go down to Tassie, get challenged early, get challenged here tonight. I think similar leads, Tassie go up by seventeen down there, Hawks go up sixteen tonight. I love the response, I just think we're struggling to put four quarters together of the best version of us right now. And when we do that, good things are going to happen. But good reminder for us tonight, it you don't do that, you'll probably get a result like that."

United will now travel to Perth, where they'll look for revenge against the Wildcats next Friday, while Illawarra look to keep up this momentum back at home against the Kings on Thursday.