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G League Austin Spurs

Fort Worth Rallies to End Toros' Win Streak

January 19, 2006 - NBA G League (G League)
Austin Spurs News Release


AUSTIN, TEXAS, January 18, 2006 - After getting off to a blistering start from the floor in the first half, the Austin Toros couldn't buy a basket in the second half as the Fort Worth Flyers battled back for a 104-93 come-from-behind win at the Austin Convention Center.

Shooting 57.5 percent from the field in the first half, the Toros (10-8) shot a dismal 25 percent (11-for-44) in the second half as the Flyers (11-10) outscored Austin 57-34 in the final 24 minutes of the game to bring the Toros' winning streak to a halt at six games.

Rawle Marshall paced Fort Worth with 26 points and six rebounds off the bench. Ime Udoka added 21 points and three assists while Luke Schenscher fell one point short of a double-double totaling nine points to go with his ten rebounds.

Marcus Fizer led Austin with 26 points and eight rebounds. Jamar Smith recorded his fourth double-double of the year with 16 points and 11 rebounds while Alex Scales finished with 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field.

"I'm not so worried that we let the lead slip away, but how we went about doing so," said Austin head coach Dennis Johnson. "We got away from the things that got us there. We stop rebounding, we stopped playing defense and we stopped working hard."

Trailing by 12 points coming out of the half, Fort Worth outscored Austin 31-11 in the third quarter to build a 10 point lead (80-70) going into the fourth quarter.

Austin made a furious comeback in the final stanza cutting the deficit to nine points a couple of times, but Fort Worth couldn't miss late as they held on for the victory.

"We got back to our veterans late in the game and they carried us the rest of the way," said Fort Worth head coach Sam Vincent. "We challenged our guys to play a little bit tougher in the second half and they responded against a very good Austin team."

Austin got off to a good start shooting a red hot 66.7 percent (14-for-21) from the field in the first quarter. Leading by ten (33-23) with time expiring in the first quarter, Toros' guard Andre Emmett stole the basketball from Fort Worth forward Martell Webster for a lay-up plus the foul to give Austin a 36-23 lead heading into the second quarter.

Scales and Fizer set the tone during Austin's big first quarter combining to go 9-for-11 for 24 of the Toros' first quarter points. Scales was perfect from the field going 4-of-4 (2-of-2 from 3-point) for 13 first quarter points.

The second quarter started just as the first quarter ended with Austin building a 14-point lead just seven minutes into the quarter. Fort Worth, however, would not go without a fight as they put together a second quarter surge to cut the Toros' lead to eight points (55-47) with a little less than two minutes before the half.

Marshall was huge in helping to keep the Fort Worth first half deficit down leading the Flyers with 13 first half points off the bench.

The Toros travel to Albuquerque, New Mexico to face the Thunderbirds in back-to-back outings Friday and Saturday, Jan. 20-21 while the Flyers travel to Little Rock, Arkansas to take on the RimRockers also on Friday, Jan. 20 beginning at 7:30 p.m.

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