Double-digit 66ers fly past T-Birds

April 7, 2006 - NBA G League (G League)
Tulsa 66ers News Release


TULSA, Okla. - With Tulsa 66ers head coach Joey Meyer away in Chicago to honor his late father, legendary DePaul coach Ray Meyer, it was assistant coach Roy Rogers who was at the helm Friday night as the Tulsa 66ers played host to the Albuquerque Thunderbirds taking a 119-104 victory for Tulsa's sixth win out of the last seven games.

Tulsa center Shawnson Johnson, who has been the valuable sixth-man for the 66ers the latter part of the season, got a starting position tonight and made the most of it. Johnson scored the first six points and grabbed the first two boards of the game for the 66ers as Tulsa took the early 6-2 advantage.

Albuquerque's athletic center, Marcus Douthit, was equal to Johnson's challenge putting up 11 first-quarter points on his way to a team-high 23 and the Thunderbirds took the lead to the second period 26-25.

Albuquerque would extend that lead to 35-31 before Tulsa caught fire behind a balanced attack that saw seven 66ers score five or more first-half points during a 25-11 run. Tulsa took a 56-46 lead to the locker room.

The Tulsa onslaught continued in the third quarter, ignited by guard Desmon Farmer, who led all scorers with 25 points, as the lead exploded to 90-75 after the third.

One of the lone highlights for the Thunderbirds came at the start of the fourth as forward Brandon Robinson, who finished with 16 points and five assists on the night, threw down back-to-back dunks, which even brought cheers from the Tulsa fans.

The balanced attack was the theme of the night for Tulsa as six players finished in double figures. Leading off the high scorers was Farmer with 25, John Lucas III for 20, Ersan Ilyasova (18), Will Conroy (17), Bernard King (15) and Johnson with 11. Conroy also led the game-high assists with eight.

"We played great defense starting in the second quarter," said Tulsa assistant coach Roy Rogers. "I was a little worried early because we let them [Albuquerque] play their pace, but we changed that with our defense."

The win runs Tulsa's record to 23-24 on the season and sets them up for a chance to finish .500 on the year with a win over the Fort Worth Flyers tomorrow night - something coach Rogers says is extremely important to his team.

"There is something mental about finishing below .500. It would mean a lot to these guys to finish without a losing record. And to think of how we would have done it winning seven of the last eight games and all against playoff teams, it's just a shame this team peaked one week too late," said Rogers.

Albuquerque's Douthit and Andreas Glyniadakis both finished with 23 points for the T-birds. Robinson contributed 16 points, and Darren Brooks finished with the game-high eight rebounds.

Albuquerque finished the game shooting 52 percent from the field to Tulsa's 58 percent. The T-birds outrebounded the 66ers 40-35. Tulsa was just 9-of-23 from the 3-point line, but an area in which Albuquerque lacked with a 0-of-3 record from beyond the arch tonight.

The 66ers will return to action for their last home game of the 2005-06 season on Saturday, April 8 as they go against the Ft. Worth Flyers at the Expo Square Pavilion. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.



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