Melbourne United have survived a major scare from an impressive New Zealand Breakers side to open their 2022/23 NBL campaign with a thrilling 101-97 overtime victory.
Sunday's clash at John Cain Arena went into extra time after Melbourne captain Chris Goulding narrowly missed a potential game-winning jump shot with the scores locked at 88-88 in the dying seconds of regulation.
But former Illawarra Hawks guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes capped a stellar United debut by scoring nine of his team-high 33 points in the overtime period while adding nine assists and five rebounds.
Goulding bounced back from a scoreless opening quarter to finish with 24 points, including six three-pointers, while new import Rayjon Tucker added 16 to help steer a new-look United to the win.
"Coming in, I was a little unsure what I was going to get from this group - we haven't had enough time together, enough games," coach Dean Vickerman said after opening the match with four new recruits in the starting five alongside club stalwart Goulding.
"We will look at some things from regulation time ... but to close out the game, from this group, to get into an overtime game and come through strong, it was really pleasing."
The match featured a contrast in styles, with United relying on their long-range shooting (18-of-38 from three-point range) while the Breakers dominated under the basket with a 54-24 advantage on points in the paint and a 51-41 edge in rebounding.
Breakers centre Dererk Pardon imposed his presence on the game with 23 points and 12 rebounds, Barry Brown Jr added 23 while Will McDowell-White came close to a triple-double with nine points, 13 rebounds and seven assists.
Brown Jr propelled the Breakers to a 20-12 start but United hit back with Tucker announcing himself to the United fans by slamming home Rathan-Mayes' off-the-backboard alley-oop pass to cap an 8-0 run.
"I thought the backend of the first quarter we got back into it, found a lot of rhythm with the three-ball which was huge for us over the course of the game," Vickerman said with United maintaining the lead for the majority of the contest after a slow start.
Trailing by two after the first quarter, Melbourne responded with Goulding starting to heat up in the second period while 38-year-old David Barlow sank his third three-pointer of the opening half to help Melbourne build their largest lead of the game at 43-36.
Late baskets to Izayah Le'Afa and Pardon saw the Breakers trail by three at halftime then keep pace with United in the third term to set up a tense finish.
