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Arkansas Mystified by Wizards

March 23, 2007 - NBA G League (G League)
Arkansas RimRockers News Release


LITTLE ROCK, Ark., March 23 - Anthony Roberson exploded for 18 fourth quarter points, and ended with a game high 24, but the Arkansas RimRockers dropped an NBA D-League contest with the Dakota Wizards, 118-98, at Alltel Arena on Friday night.

"The biggest thing is communication and everyone being on the same page." Roberson said. "I think our communication isn't the best right now. We have to get that together. We have to play 48 minutes and communicate at the same time. We have a few games left, and we have to keep playing, and keep playing hard."

Arkansas (13-32) was outscored in every quarter and was unable to make a strong push after a strong second quarter burst by the Wizards. Dakota improved their record to 25-15 and kept pace with the Sioux Falls Skyforce for 1st place in the Eastern Division.

Arkansas fell behind by 18 points with 7:09 in the second quarter after the Wizards erupted with a 17-3 run to begin the period. The RimRockers were unable to take care of the basketball, turning it over 7 times, leading to 10 points for Dakota.

"We lost the game in the second quarter. We didn't play together, and didn't play defense. This is really tough." said RimRockers Head Coach Andy Stoglin.

Clay Tucker scored 16, while grabbing 7 rebounds and handing out a game high 9 assists. Matt Haryasz had 7 rebounds and 16 points on 8-12 shooting. The RimRockers shared the ball with 30 of Arkansas' 36 field goals were assisted, but were unable to hit from the field ending the night shooting under 38%.

Arkansas started the second half scoring the first six points of the quarter, but were unable to stop the Wizards and never could close the gap to under 10.

Rod Benson led eight Wizards players in double digits scoring 20 and pulling down 12 rebounds. Kevin Lyde tallied the other double-double of the game with 10 points and 12 boards. Dakota as a team out rebounded the RimRockers 64-45, with a 23-7 advantage in 2nd chance points.

"You can't get that far down, especially against a good team." said Stoglin. "In the third quarter we played the way we needed to play. But it's really hard to get these guys to play as a team."

Arkansas will try to get their first win against the Wizards on Saturday night as they host Dakota for the Saturday night rematch at Alltel Arena.

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