Benson's Career Night Leads Sioux Falls Past Erie 117-97
February 21, 2016 - NBA G League (G League)
Sioux Falls Skyforce News Release
Sioux Falls, SD -- The Sioux Falls Skyforce (26-7) ran away from the Erie BayHawks (11-23) in a 117-97 win on Saturday night at the Sanford Pentagon. With the win, the Skyforce have taken sole possession of second place in NBA Development League history for the best record through a team's first 33 games of the season.
Keith Benson recorded a new NBA D-League career-high 32 points and added seven rebounds in the win for Sioux Falls, scoring 16 points in the third quarter alone. In addition, Benson has now recorded a Benson's Career Night Leads Sioux Falls Past Erie 117-97
Sioux Falls, SD -- The Sioux Falls Skyforce (26-7) ran away from the Erie BayHawks (11-23) in a 117-97 win on Saturday night at the Sanford Pentagon. With the win, the Skyforce have taken sole possession of second place in NBA Development League history for the best record through a team's first 33 games of the season.
Keith Benson recorded a new NBA D-League career-high 32 points and added seven rebounds in the win for Sioux Falls, scoring 16 points in the third quarter alone. In addition, Benson has now recorded a block in 23 of his last 26 games and leads the team with 1.40 blocks per contest.
After trailing by 10 points heading into the second quarter, the BayHawks fought back to just a two point deficit at the half, trailing the Skyforce 52-50. But much like last night's matchup, Sioux Falls was able to make adjustments and run away with the game in the final two periods of play.
Foul trouble held Erie's frontcourt in check for the majority of the game as Melvin Ejim (14 points), Alex Davis, Nnanna Egwu, and John Bohannon (10 rebounds) all had five or more fouls in the contest.
Keith Appling led the BayHawks with a 27-point, 14-assist double-double while Tyler Harvey and Jordan Sibert combined to score 38 points coming off the bench in the loss for Erie.
While the BayHawks frontcourt struggled, the Skyforce frontcourt thrived. In addition to Benson's career night, Greg Whittingon added a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds while Rodney McGruder recorded 18 points for Sioux Falls.
Briante Weber scored a new NBA D-League career-high 17 points as well, and Bubu Palo added the team's second double-double with 17 points and 10 assists on the night. With two on the night, Weber now has 18 steals over his last seven games for an average of 2.56 per game. Palo continued his success at the free throw line making nine of his 10 attempts. Palo has now gotten to the line 81 times in his last eight games, making 68 of his attempts for an average of 83.9 percent in that span.
Sioux Falls has now won four straight games and improves to 4-0 on the season against the Erie BayHawks. With their 13th home win tonight, they are just one win shy of last season's home record of 14-10.
The Skyforce will look to continue their success at home as they take on the Fort Wayne Mad Ants (15-17) on Tuesday, February 23 at the Sanford Pentagon.
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