Melbourne United coach Jacob Chance has praised star import Cole Anthony for putting a pre-game sanction aside to lead his side to a fourth consecutive NBL win.
Earlier on Saturday it was announced the former NBA guard had accepted a sanction for "conduct unbecoming" in the club's previous wins over Cairns and the New Zealand Breakers.
The sanction – the result of multiple outbursts towards officials in recent games - was handed down by Basketball Australia's integrity unit.
While sanctioned, he was still allowed to suit up against Brisbane and he made the most of it with a game-high 32 points in Melbourne’s 120-92 win at John Cain Arena.
"He handled it really well, and like I've said all week we support everyone through different things that happen," Chance said.
"He made some mistakes, and there are some things he'd love to have back, but yeah, I thought his approach tonight was as it has been in a lot of the games this year.
"We're focusing a lot on a couple of games where he had some incidents, but he wasn't deterred by it.
"He gets a couple of early fouls that he can tidy up ... but thought he came out aggressive, got his teammates involved and I thought he really did a good job defensively too."
The win continued Melbourne’s recent domination of the Bullets, with the victory United’s 18th from their past 19 meetings.
Anthony also hit 13 of 14 field goals, with his only miss of the game coming from a long-range buzzer beater attempt at the end of the third term.
He was on his best behaviour, yet he appeared to still be in the sights of the officials to pick up three fouls before halftime.
United big man Josh Oduro also starred with 28 points and 14 rebounds, while Lat Mayen scored a team-high 15 points for Brisbane.
The Bullets' injury issues went from bad to worse with forward import Jaylin Williams going down in the second quarter with a right shoulder issue.
They were already undermanned with key scorers Max Mackinnon (concussion) and Arnas Velicka (leg) unavailable.
It made scoring difficult for Brisbane and Melbourne took ruthless advantage to open up an early buffer.
With Oduro controlling the boards, the home side led by 12 points at quarter-time and 14 at halftime after Anthony exploded with a 10-point burst in the second term.
Despite having their depth tested, the plucky Bullets rallied in the third to cut the margin to as little as seven points, before United led by 10 at the last change.
Melbourne extinguished any hopes of a Brisbane boilover by blowing the margin out early in the final quarter, with Anthony and Oduro dominating.
