With a lonely gym magnifying his pointscoring appetite, Bullets import Lamar Patterson has defied Melbourne United with 33 points in an NBL upset at Brisbane Convention Centre.
Fourth-placed Brisbane's comeback from 17 points down in the third quarter was a jaw-dropping sign of fight in the 97-94 win against a top-two side.
And it came a week after Patterson was one of barely a handful of Bullets players training together with six teammates away on World Cup qualifying duty.
One of the few left to practise with Patterson in a seemingly empty training court was short-term replacement Jeremy Kendle who helped spark the side with 15 points in a busy 13-minute shift off the bench on Saturday.
Patterson's haul, complemented by five rebounds and three assists, made for a tally of 57 points from his past two games.
The guard said the side never lost faith they could reel United in.
"We are a smart team. We've got a lot of depth as well so we knew that eventually we would wear them out,'' he said.
"This league, the talent gap isn't that much so you just fight and fight until the end."
The two teams meet again in Melbourne on Monday and that can't come soon enough for United whose shooting fell apart in the final quarter. They shot just 4-15 from the floor when the game was on the line.
They will also regret not doing more to stop Patterson and Kendle.
"I take personally a lot of pride in our defence and I still do but to let those two guys kinda dominate us like that, that hurts," said United forward David Barlow.
"We had a tough time finding an answer to those two guys."
It was the second major scalp of fourth-placed Brisbane's season after earlier toppling the Perth Wildcats.
The Bullets looked out of their depth in the first half but managed to cling to United long enough to hand centre Matthew Hodgson a memorable win in his 100th NBL game.
Barlow (20 points) gave Brisbane some anxious moments in the final minutes but the Bullets had enough poise when they needed it most.
Melbourne toyed with the Bullets as early as the opening minute of the second quarter.
Chris Goulding effortlessly unravelled Brisbane's defence for a pair of assists and was also on target from three-point range.
It would have infuriated Bullets coach Andrej Lemanis that United's bench, led by man mountain Alex Pledger, contributed 11 first quarter points while Brisbane's back-ups added nothing.
Patterson was a source of inspiration for the home side. With every scoring play, he gave his teammates a little more belief.
Share
