Flight Falls In Overtime Contest At Greenville
November 29, 2002 - NBA G League (G League)
Huntsville Flight News Release
GREENVILLE, S.C., Nov. 29 Donald Hand scored four of his 10 points in the overtime session to lift Greenville to a 76-71 NBDL victory over the Huntsville Flight here Friday afternoon at the Bi-Lo Center.
The Flight, which finished a string of playing five of their first six games on the road, fell to 4-2. Greenville won for the fourth straight time to improve to 4-4.
Brandon Williams led the Flight with 20 points, while Mike Wilks added 17 and Rodney Bias contributed with 10 off the bench.
Greg Jones led four Groove players in double figures by scoring 16 points off the bench. Jones was followed by Greg Gray in the scoring column with 13 points, along with Billy Thomas who chipped in 12 and Hand with his 10.
Huntsville led for much of the contest, but the Groove took their first lead since the first quarter at 62-61 with 3:13 remaining on a pair of Kevin Lyde free throws. Lyde then added a dunk 13 seconds later and the front end of a one-and-one at the 1:59 mark to give the Groove a 65-61 advantage.
Bias cut into Greenvilles four-point margin with a jumper at 1:27 left before Lyde again went to the free throw line to hit 1-of-2 and give the home squad a 66-63 advantage with 48.6 seconds to play.
After Wilks answered with an eight-footer for the Flight, Thomas sunk a pair of Groove free throws for a 68-65 advantage with 17.7 seconds left. That led to Lonnie Harrell hitting a 3-pointer with 10.9 seconds to play in regulation to send the game into overtime. Harrell, who was limited to under double digits for the first time this season with five points, converted his only shot of 10 attempts on that shot at the end of regulation.
The Groove, behind the play of Hand, outscored the visitors in the overtime period 8-3 for the victory.
After jumping out to a 25-12 lead through one quarter, the Flight extended their biggest margin to 15 at 27-12 on a Bias hook shots from 10 feet out. The Groove then went to work on cutting the Huntsville advantage and had it down to seven, 36-29, at the half.
Although they outshot (41.0 to 34.7 percent) and outrebounded (49 to 35) the Groove, the Flight was stymied with a season-high 23 turnovers in the contest.
Huntsville returns home to face Columbus in a 7:30 p.m. contest Saturday at the Von Braun Center. It will be "Beach Party Night" at the VBC as free leis and a trip to Gulf Shores Beach will be given away. In addition it will be the first of eight Youth Uniform Series giveaway nights. The first 1,500 children ages 12-and-under will receive a water bottle.
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