First-Place Bellingham Slam Hosts Game in Blaine this Friday
June 10, 2014 - International Basketball League (IBL)
Bellingham Slam News Release
BELLINGHAM, Wash. -Entering the final stretch of the 2014 International Basketball League regular season, the Bellingham Slam are set to host their annual game in Blaine this Friday.
The Slam, currently in first place in the IBL with an 11-2 record, will host the Houston Strikers at Blaine High School, with a 7 p.m. tip-off scheduled on Friday.
Friday's contest will mark the third straight season in which the Slam will host a home game in Blaine. Last season, the Slam won 105-91 against the Seattle Flight, a team which featured former Washington Husky Venoy Overton on its roster.
After opening the season with two losses in its first three games, Bellingham is currently riding a ten game winning streak. With three games remaining in the regular season, the squad is gunning for a fourth consecutive number one seed at the IBL playoff tournament, where the Slam hopes to pick up its third straight league championship.
For the first time the Slam will be making their Blaine visit with a different coach on the sideline, as longtime head man Rob Ridnour stepped down prior to the start of the season.
Tyler Amaya, who played for the Slam from 2008 to 2011 and served as Ridnour's assistant coach in 2013, took over coaching duties this season and recently returned to the court as a player-coach to give him team a boost heading towards the playoffs.
This season, the Slam is being led by a trio of veteran players, center Blake Poole and guard Morris Anderson and Jacob Stevenson. Each is averaging at least 18 points per game, with Anderson leading the way with a 21.1 point scoring average and a 50 percent success rate on his shots from three-point range. Poole is the team and league leader in rebounding, pulling down 15.4 boards per game.
The Slam's top rookie this season is guard Sam Freeman, who joins the Slam after an outstanding career across the border at the University of the Fraser Valley, and is averaging 15 points per game.
Houston comes into Friday's match with a 6-0 record on the year, which will be the second meeting between the two teams. The two teams played once during the 2013 season, with Bellingham coming out on top, 106-86.
Following Friday's contest in Blaine, the Slam has two more home games remaining. On June 20, the Slam will host the Seattle Flight at Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon, and then on June 22 the team wraps up the regular season at their usual home venue of Whatcom Pavilion against the Vancouver Volcanoes.
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