The Melbourne Tigers went ahead of Adelaide into second place on the NBL ladder with a 115-103 win over the 36ers on Saturday night.

Melbourne did not trail at any point in the game and were never threatened after opening a 31-20 quarter-time lead.

Adelaide reduced the Tigers' lead to 10 points early in the final quarter but could not make any other significant in-roads into Melbourne's advantage.

Chris Anstey led the way for Melbourne with 27 points and 14 rebounds and forward Dave Thomas added 21 points and 14 rebounds.

Point guard Darryl McDonald piled on 14 final quarter points to finish with 18 and the veteran playmaker also added five assists and three steals.

Willie Farley was Adelaide's leader with 19 points and Oscar Forman added 18.

The game threatened to explode late in the first quarter when Anstey received a technical foul for throwing the ball into the face of Adelaide centre Paul Rees.

The referees managed to regain control of the contest and there were no further ugly incidents.

Melbourne dominated the rebound count, out-boarding the 36ers 63-33.

The Tigers' inside presence forced Adelaide to shoot from the perimeter.

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