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Friel's 35 Points Helps Rochester Win Close Game vs Augusta, 121-119

February 16, 2009 - Premier Basketball League (PBL)
Rochester RazorSharks News Release


Rochester, NY - Keith Friel dropped three-pointers like rain out from the sky, and his team-high 35 points led the Rochester RazorSharks to their seventh straight win, 121-119, in front of 6,283 cheering fans at Blue Cross Arena.

Rochester dominated the first quarter, finishing with a 37-25 lead as the buzzer blared. Keith Friel dominated the RazorSharks' scoring in the early minutes, with 16 team-leading points - 12 of them coming from four 3-point completions. Augusta Donielle Davis hit a pair of threes and scored 11 first-quarter points; Davis would eventually lead all scorers on both teams with 40 points, that in itself an Augusta Groove franchise record.

"I always tell our guys," said Augusta Groove head coach Rick Brown, "we've got to win the battle of the free throws, the rebounds and the turnovers, and tonight we didn't do it from the free throw line. We're going to get points from Donielle Davis, but it's a team effort, so we've got guys who can step up and make some points."

Augusta pulled closer in the second quarter, as Kendrick "Modie" Johnson's jumper in traffic helped pull the Groove out of a double-digit deficit. But every time the Groove tried to pull closer to the lead, a series of turnovers curtailed the team's momentum - including, with 9 minutes left in the second quarter, the Groove coach, Rick Brown, calling a timeout - while Rochester still had the ball, resulting in a Groove technical foul. As the half ended, Rochester held a ten-point lead, 64-54. The Groove would continue to come back, narrowing the lead to single-digits and single-possessions, but could not get the extra free throw at the line. The Groove only scored 23 of 39 points from the charity stripe, as opposed to Rochester's 26 for 37 effort.

Friel would add four more 3-pointers in the third quarter, including a last-second shot that went through the cylinder just as the buzzer went off. That final basket helped Friel break the team record for most 3-point completions, a record he actually set two days earlier in a road victory against Vermont - giving the Virginia forward 15 completed 3-pointers in a 48-hour span.

"They were giving me the open looks tonight," said Friel, "I wanted to keep aggressive. With Mook (James Reaves), we pound the ball inside early, and in today's game I wanted to set the tone and be aggressive."

After starting the season with a 1-3, including losing their first game of the season to the Groove, Rochester has powered seven straight victories, giving them the Eastern Division lead. With the loss, Augusta falls to a record of 6-5, two games behind the Sharks in the PBL's Eastern Division.

"We had more good players than Augusta tonight," said Rochester coach Rod Baker of the win. "Augusta's a very good offensive team that was a little but undermanned, and we got far enough ahead where we could hold on. That's not our best deal, that's not good enough to win a championship. I wrote on the board before the game, if we lost this game we would be in a three-way tie for the lead in the Eastern Division."

Rochester played without its strongest scoring threat, James "Mook" Reaves, who sat out the game with a knee injury. Augusta, only a few days removed from the release of their leading scorer, AJ Millien, lost Latterance Casey for the rest of the game after the center entered early foul trouble and two technical fouls, necessitating his early trip to the locker room.

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