Basketball On The Internet.

JESSE Edwards ruled out with back spasms pre-game, there was genuine cause for alarm in the Melbourne United camp ahead of its elimination final with those perennial pesky NBL Ants of Tasmania. That was, of course, before Finn Delany stepped up to produce a career performance.

Delany righted a leaky United ship in the first quarter, en route to his finest game of the season, a career-best equalling 33-point haul on a wicked 68 per cent shooting, plus six rebounds, two assists and a steal.

With a 3-point swish and a strong drive, Delany had five of United's first eight points, Tyson Walker with another triple for that early 8-4 lead.

But from there, as United fell hopelessly in love with the three bomb, at the opposite end, Tasmania used the ball and executed as a unit. After those initial threes, United went 2-of-11 from long range over the next stretch.

Meanwhile Tasmania conjured an 11-0 run in which Nick Marshall, Josh Bannan and David Johnson - coordinated by Tyger Campbell - all featured.

Continuing to lead from the front, Delany aggressively took the ball at the hoop and when Tanner Krebs finally broke the 3-point drought, Melbourne had the deficit at the first quarter break back to 15-17.

Tasmania coach Scott Roth - missing his injured crew of lead import Bryce Hamilton, Olympic centre Will Magnay and feisty guard Ben Ayre, not to mention Sean MacDonald all season, and with Anthony Drmic clearly hampered by a back injury - was forced to rely heavily on his starting quintet.

Marshall played the full 40 minutes in a career first, and led the JackJumpers with 20 points, Bannan, Johnson, Campbell and Majok Deng all playing upwards of 33:33 minutes.

It meant inevitably and despite another typically gutsy performance, the JackJumpers started hitting the wall midway through a final quarter in which they only could muster 13 points to 26.

Milton Doyle broke the Jackies backs with some big shots in his 19-point, six assist contribution, especially down the stretch when Tasmania was running on fumes, the tank empty.

Melbourne lives to fight another day but there was little in its performance to strike fear in the hearts of the Perth Wildcats, tomorrow's opponent in the West in another knock-out confrontation.

Edwards looms as a game-day decision and Chris Goulding, who managed a meagre 17:53 minutes for four points and was noticeably limping, also looks unlikely to be anywhere near 100 per cent.

A semi final berth against regular season champion Sydney awaits the winner.

Post-game, Roth confirmed he would be back to complete the final year of his coaching contract with Tasmania next season, the team that defends the island with some good news to close on at least.

NBL PLAYOFFS 2026

Elimination Final (5v6)

Melbourne United 82 (Delany 33, Doyle 19, Krebs 11; Krslovic 7 rebs; Walker, Doyle 6 assts) d Tasmania JackJumpers 68 (Marshall 20, Johnson, Bannan 16, Campbell 12; Deng 9 rebs; Campbell 6 assts) at John Cain Arena. Crowd: 5,071. Melbourne advances to KO final with Perth at RAC Arena tomorrow night.

Qualifying Final (3v4)

South East Melbourne Phoenix 111 (Sobey 24, Foxwell 18, Clark 16, Glover 12; Brown 8 rebs; Sobey 7 assts) d Perth Wildcats 94 (Doolittle 22, Wyndler 13, Lual-Acuil, Henshall, Duke 11; Huefner, Lual-Acuil, Doolittle 6 rebs; Wyndler 7 assts) at John Cain Arena. Crowd: 3,891 Phoenix progress to semi finals v Adelaide 36ers.