International Basketball League weekend wrap for May 21 â 25th
Published on May 26, 2009 under International Basketball League (IBL) News Release
The International Basketball League, the world's highest scoring pro league, puts its biggest stars on display in a weekend slate of 16 games played among all four divisions. The action packed weekend included several triple-doubles and near triple doubles, a buzzer-beating game winner between two of the top contenders, an overtime game, and maybe the individual game of the year from the league's leading scorer Devon Greene (Snohomish Explosion), in a loss to Edmonton.
North Division:
In the division's lone home game, the first year Vancouver BC Titans (4-8) welcomed the Nippon Tornadoes (0-13) to the Langley Events center where they secured a 148-88 win, snapping the Titans 8-game losing skid. The Titans who came into the game minus a couple of their everyday guys, looked to their star guard Kyle Keyes (#9 IBL assists) and he delivered, falling just a rebound short of a triple-double, notching 18 pts to go with the nine boards and 10 assists. Brandon Ellis and Brian Branman, two of the five Titans to play in all their games this year, stepped up and gave the host Vancouver 18 with 8 boards and 19 and 9 respectively.
South Division:
The South played host to five games over the weekend with the Central Oregon Hotshots (3-4) playing three times, twice on the road. The Oregon Wave (5-1) played three games and the Vancouver WA Volcanoes (8-3) hosted two games two games as well. The Hotshots and Wave played a home and home weekend series with Friday's game played at Central Oregon (neutral site) and the Wave hosting on Saturday night. Oregon proved too much for the Hotshots and swept the weekend set by scores of 123-95 and 131-111. These two teams feature a host of players in the midst of great seasons, starting with Central Oregon's Terrence Hundley (#2 IBL pts and #12 IBL assists) who averaged 21.5, 4.5 assists and 3 rebounds over the two contests while the league's fourth leading rebounder, Damian Browne had two excellent games going for 13 points and 18 boards on Thursday and notching 14 and 14 in the loss on the 23rd. The Wave got their second of their three weekend wins on Friday with a 135-120 victory of the Olympia Reign. The Reign (who are in a short season 'branding year' this summer as they prepare for full inclusion in 2010) were led by Nicholas Moore (#14 IBL rebounds) with a 25 point 7 rebound performance as the 6'7" forward continued to cement his place as the cornerstone of the franchise. Sam Moore also had a solid effort, collecting a game-high 13 boards to go with his 16 points and four helpers; in this game, the Wave turned to their two other stars Robert Day and Jeremiah Dominguez who answered the bell in a big way. Day, who is currently third in the IBL in scoring at 28.7/game, poured in 29 while adding nine off the glass and dropping five dimes. Dominguez (#4 IBL assists) used Friday's game as a warm-up for Saturday - when he put up 32 with 13 helpers - by scoring 28 to go along with a dozen assists. The other two South division games were hosted by the Vancouver Washington Volcanoes on Friday and Saturday against Central Oregon and the defending champion Bellingham Slam (10-3). The Volcanoes secured 135-124 win against the Hotshots despite an all-around effort from Terrence Hundley who put up a line of 27-7-4 and Damian Browne who corralled an astounding 20 rebounds to go with his 16 points, all in 25 minutes of play. For the home-side, long-time IBL star Kevin "Pip" Bloodsaw was the team's high scorer with 18 (in 19 minutes), one of seven Volcanoes to score in double figures, to go with 15 each from established stars Brad Lechtenberg and Alex Hartman. On the glass, Vancouver was led by Bryson McKenzie (#1 IBL red) who had 10 and 13 points while All-Star Kevin Tyner (#5 IBL assists) handed out a team-best 9 assists to go with his 11 points. Saturday's match up with the reigning champs the Slam was one of the best games so far this year with the teams trading 30+ point quarters leading to a 57-51 halftime lead for the Volcanoes. The Slam took their first lead late in the third 72-71 and the team's battled in the tight affair the rest of the way. Bellingham All-Star Tyler Amaya (#5 IBL pts, #7 red) scored one of his game-high 33 with 30 seconds to go to make the score 104-102 before Vancouver's Tyner drew a foul, hitting both free-throws to draw even at 104. That set the stage for Ira Graham's (#8 IBL assists) heroics when he got a reverse lay-up to fall with under a second to go and the Slam held on for win #10 on the year.
East Division:
It was a light schedule for the teams out east with just two games, both of which involved the Grand Rapids Flight (6-6) as they hit the road (30 miles down the road) on Friday to battle the division-leading Holland Blast (11-2) and then on Saturday hosted the Kankakee County Soldiers (8-6), and lost both contests. Following the 135-125 loss to Holland, the Flight returned home for the game with the Soldiers, although both squads entered the contest without their biggest stars. For Grand Rapids, they were missing Tremaine Dalton (#16 IBL pts) as well as their leading rebounder Phillip Hillstock (#17 IBL red). Kankakee played that night without arguably their best player, All-Star Erik Rhinehart (#15 IBL pts, #10 red). For the home team, seven of their eight players reached double digits on the scoring line, with Maurice Benson's 22 as the club's high mark and Anton Currie collected a team best 10 boards to go with his 11 points. For the visiting Soldiers Stan Chismark picked up the scoring load as he went off for 36 points and seven boards while team owner and former All-Star Barry Bradford (#10 IBL assists) did what he does best in handing out 7 assists, tied for the game-high, along with dropping in 19 points.
West Division:
Once again the West saw the most traffic over the weekend with three two-game sets as the LA Lightning (7-2) hosted the Seattle Mountaineers (8-5), the Snohomish County Explosion (5-6) ventured to Canada to face the Edmonton Energy (6-2), and the Nippon Tornadoes (0-13) paid a weekend visit to the Tacoma Tide (5-0). The Mountaineers super roadie may have ended in LA, but it began with two matchups with first year short-season 'branding' clubs the Arizona Flame and the Phoenix Red Rock Raptors. The Flame put on a good show in their first ever game but dropped a 98-87 decision in the IBL equivalent of a pitcher's duel. For the Flame, Jon Smith led the way for the first-year club going for 24 points and collecting a dozen boards while guard Quincy Shannon registered 21 with 9 rebounds. Seattle was paced in the win by Brian Johnson's 24 and Ike OHanson's (#24 IBL red) 17 to go with his team best 11 rebounds. Game two of the Mountaineers 4-game swing through the southwest found them battling another first year club in Phoenix who took advantage of the back-to-back games, taking the fourth year club to overtime before falling 123-116. Seattle had a fully rested Donald Watts (#4 IBL pts) who led all scorers with 37 and got a solid effort from Raashad Powell, the team's second leading scorer, who contributed 28 and 12 boards. The Raptors made a great showing in the first of their five games for this season with Del Somers notching a team-high 26 points while Monte Jones added 20 of his own. The game was highlighted by the hometown Raptors exploding for 47 points in the final 12 minutes to push the game to the extra stanza. For the Mountaineers, now 2-0 on the trip-their trip continued on to the coast as they visited the LA Lightning and earned a split with a tight fought 115-113 win on Sunday following the 116-109 loss on the 23rd. For the Lightning, the awakening of former Utah Jazz Bryon Russell should spell trouble for LA opponents as he went for 27 in the team's win and put up another 25 in the loss the following night. Also for LA, Lamond Murray (#8 IBL pts) averaged 20 points and 5 rebounds over the weekend pair while Kamran Sufi (#2 IBL assists) struggled to score but dished out 22 dimes in the two games. Once again Donald Watts, a three-time IBL All-Star, led the way for Seattle, scoring 36 in Saturday's loss and another 25 in Sunday's win. Raashad Powell chipped in his best effort of the weekend in the Mountaineer win notching a triple-double of 20 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists, joining Watts and four other team-mates who scored 10 or better in the win. In the LA win, the Lightning went with quantity as they played 13 different players, challenging the road-weary Mountaineers as 12 of them got on the score sheet and all but two grabbed a rebound. Another series saw the Explosion head off to play the Edmonton where they were swept in a weekend series in 2008, and fared no better this season dropping both games. In the 159-127 Energy win on Friday, Edmonton captain JR Patrick (#20 IBL pts) recorded a team-high 30 points followed by Andrew Parker, winner of the 2008 post-season Slam Dunk Contest, finished with 29, his IBL career high. The Explosion got several standout performances in the loss including a 39 point, 13 rebound, 9 assist night from Devon Greene (#1 IBL pts and #8 red), Richard Ford's (#9 IBL pts and #3 red) 26 and 16 and a triple-double from Jason Hicks (#13 IBL assists) but what was most interesting for the Explosion fan-was-that due to illness from a few Explosion players on Friday night, Explosion coach Chris Weakley suited up and went for 36 points, 8 rebounds and had 5 assists. The May 23rd game, although another big win for Edmonton, featured two more triple doubles and two more near ones. For the losing side, Devon Greene was again the star as he put up a line of 43 points, 14 boards and had 13 helpers--perhaps the individual game of the year, with Richard Ford playing the side-kick to the tune of 20 and 15 as well as 9 assists-and 5 blocks. Jason Hicks nearly recorded back-to-back triple-doubles falling one assist and one rebound short of the amazing feat. For the Energy, Will Funn (#3 IBL assists and #20 red) recorded his second triple-double of the year going for 10 points 13 assists and 12 boards, JR Patrick, again the high man for the home side recorded 35 while Steve Sir (#23 IBL pts) added 22 in the win. The final two games for this past weekend featured the beleaguered Nippon Tornadoes playing a Thursday-Saturday set with the Tacoma Tide with the Tide completing the second sweep of the week. The Tornadoes were led by their three-headed scoring monster of Masaharu Kataoka (#12 IBL pts), Daisuke Tamura (#13 IBL pts) and Yuuto Okumoto (#24 IBL pts) accounting for 92 of the teams 121 points in game one and 39 of their 76 in game two. For the Tide, Dontay Harris (#5 IBL rebounds) took full advantage of his size against the smaller Tornadoes club as the 6'8" forward averaged 22.5 points and a dozen boards in the two games. Tacoma was led on the score sheet in both games by rookie Antwan Williams (#7 IBL assists) who got 29 points in game one and then another 25 in the second win.
International Basketball League Stories from May 26, 2009
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