Flight defeats Columbus 77-72 Friday night
February 7, 2003 - NBA G League (G League)
Huntsville Flight News Release
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Feb. 7, 2003) Demetric Shaw hit four free throws and came up with a clutch steal in the final minute as Huntsville hung on for a 77-72 NBDL victory over Columbus here Friday night at the Von Braun Center.
The Flight (17-16) won for the second straight time as Lonnie Harrell led the squad with 18 points. Brandon Williams added 17 for Huntsville and Bakari Hendrix added 11.
After trading lead three times along with five ties in the opening period, the Flight took a 22-19 advantage at the end of the first quarter and did not surrender the lead for the remainder of the game.
Huntsville, though, saw a double-digit lead at 70-60 in the final period vanish as the Riverdragons outscored the Flight 9-3 over a three-minute span sparked by two buckets from Nate Johnson and a 3-pointer by Sean Daugherty -- and trailed 73-69 with 1:30 to play.
Columbus (15-17), which dropped its second straight contest, got 18 points from Nate Green, 15 from Johnson and 13 from Tang Hamilton to keep the Riverdragons in the game down the stretch.
After Shaw hit two foul shots with 56.9 seconds left, Saul Smith cut the margin to three at 75-72 with a 3-pointer. The Flight then missed on their next possession, but Smith threw away a pass into the backcourt after an inbounds play that Shaw stole and subsequently was fouled. That enabled the final two free throws from Shaw with 10 seconds left, as he ended the game with seven points.
"I thought it was a good win tonight," Flight coach Ralph Lewis said. "We played defense real well, but offensively we settled tonight as we took jump shots when we needed to drive more. You take the good with the bad because there will always be some peaks and valleys -- but at this point in the season all wins, no matter how they come, are big."
Both teams did not convert well from the floor as the Flight hit just 39.6 percent from the floor, hitting 23-of-58. The Riverdragons (15-17) converted only 27-of-75 shots (36 percent) to drop their second straight contest.
"It was a tough one tonight," Riverdragons coach Jeff Malone said. "We fought back real hard and had a chance to win the game. I cant question my guys effort they played real hard -- we had a chance to tie them in the end but it just didnt happen."
The Flight return to action with a 7:30 pm ET contest Saturday at Fayetteville, while the Riverdragons return to action Wednesday at Roanoke.
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