{"id":299160,"date":"2025-11-21T11:42:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T11:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/299160\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T11:42:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T11:42:09","slug":"javale-mcgree-hits-half-court-buzzer-beater-that-is-ruled-out-video-melbourne-united-beat-illawarra-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/299160\/","title":{"rendered":"JaVale McGree hits half-court buzzer beater that is ruled out, video, Melbourne United beat Illawarra Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

It will not ease the pain of losing the NBL grand final earlier this year. <\/p>\n

But Melbourne United finally shook off bogey team Illawarra on Friday night, outlasting the Hawks 105-102 in a thriller at WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong, but they needed every last second of the 40 minutes. <\/p>\n

Illawarra appeared to have forced overtime when JaVale McGee connected with a half-court heave at the buzzer, but after video review, it was ruled to have left his hands after time had expired and United survived. <\/p>\n

Watch live coverage of NBL and WNBL 2025-26 seasons with ESPN on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Including the last two games of the 2024-25 grand final series in March, and their first meeting this season earlier this month, United had lost three straight to the Hawks and four of their past five before tip-off on Friday. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But the class of Chris Goulding (23 points) and Milton Doyle (19), and clutch three-point shooting by Finn Delany (13) and Tanner Krebs (12), helped Melbourne overcome the defending champions and improve their league-leading record to 12-2 ahead of a home game against Perth on Sunday before the FIBA break. <\/p>\n

It was Illawarra\u2019s third straight loss and, despite a more energetic performance, left the Hawks languishing with a 4-9 record before their next game against South East Melbourne Phoenix on December 4. <\/p>\n

McGee (28 points, 11 rebounds) and guards QJ Peterson (22 points) and Davo Hickey (18 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists) kept Illawarra in the game. <\/p>\n

Peterson, who equalled his career high of 22 points, hit three triples in the final quarter. <\/p>\n

Illawarra looked gone midway through the third term, trailing 73-65, but rallied with a 14-2 run to cut Melbourne\u2019s lead to 86-83 by three-quarter time. <\/p>\n

The teams then traded baskets in a seesawing final period before United edged ahead 99-95 with four minutes remaining. <\/p>\n

Hickey\u2019s tip-in of a Tyler Harvey miss put the Hawks in front 102-101 with 29 seconds to go, then Melbourne responded with a Delany corner three for a 104-102 lead with 17.5 seconds left, forcing Hawks coach Justin Tatum to call time out. <\/p>\n

Harvey\u2019s potential game-tying floater rimmed out with 1.9 seconds on the clock, Jesse Edwards made one of two free throws, then McGee\u2019s three-point heave from halfway was waved off, but not before the entire arena erupted in a chaotic scene. <\/p>\n

OFF AND RUNNING <\/p>\n

Defence was not a priority for either team in the first quarter, as they piled up 71 points between them and Melbourne established a 38-33 lead. <\/p>\n

It was Melbourne\u2019s highest-scoring quarter of the season and, for Illawarra, a significant improvement on their previous home game against Sydney five days earlier, when they could only manage 32 points in the entire first half. <\/p>\n

Referees blew 14 fouls in the quarter and the teams shot a combined 18 of 21 from the free-throw line. <\/p>\n

The points blitz continued in the second term as Melbourne overcame a sluggish start to rally with a 12-3 run midway through the period to take a 58-52 lead into the main break. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo shortage of scoring but not enough defence from our perspective,\u201d Goulding told Fox Sports at halftime. <\/p>\n

Cotton questioned over emotional scenes | 02:21<\/p>\n

SHINING STARS <\/p>\n

Goulding has long been lambasted as a pantomime villain by Hawks fans, and has endured some cold shooting nights on recent trips to Wollongong. <\/p>\n

But the veteran sharpshooter put all that behind him to hit his first five three-point shots for a game-high 18 points by halftime to give his side the ascendancy. <\/p>\n

Hawks big man JaVale McGee was held to just nine points and nine rebounds and fouled out in Illawarra\u2019s 98-71 loss to the Kings last Sunday, then had 12 and 10 on four-of-18 shooting when beaten 97-85 by the 36ers in Adelaide on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

But McGee was back to his slam-dunking best against Melbourne, shooting a perfect seven from seven in the first half \u2013 including a three-pointer \u2013 on his way to 16 points. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It will not ease the pain of losing the NBL grand final earlier this year. But Melbourne United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[3443,64,63,689,726,68088,171113,171103,12090,171111,171108,11288,60134,171110,171105,171112,18619,35466,97614,130548,171106,97616,673,677,171109,46,171107,1124,85,670,14379,100661,97782,171104,3439,4526],"class_list":["post-299160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-adelaide","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-basketball","tag-chris-goulding","tag-cold-shooting-nights","tag-fiba-as","tag-final-quarter","tag-free-throw-line","tag-game-tying-floater","tag-grand-final","tag-grand-final-series","tag-half-court-buzzer-beater","tag-half-court-heave","tag-half-court-scene","tag-home-game","tag-javale-mcgee","tag-jesse-edwards","tag-justin-tatum","tag-krebs","tag-milton-doyle","tag-new-south-wales","tag-oceania","tag-pantomime-villain","tag-perth","tag-seesawing-final-period","tag-south-australia","tag-sports","tag-sydney","tag-three-quarter-time","tag-tyler-harvey","tag-veteran-sharpshooter","tag-video-review","tag-western-australia","tag-wollongong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}