Mad Ants Edge Oklahoma City in Showcase Finale
December 22, 2022 - NBA G League (G League)
Indiana Mad Ants News Release
LAS VEGAS, Nev. - Fort Wayne led early, Oklahoma City led late and there was a lot of back and forth in between Thursday night. In the end, a Terry Taylor three pointer gave Fort Wayne a 132-131 win to close out their NBA G League Winter Showcase at 2-0.
Taylor scored a game high 46 points, the highest total for any player during the 2022 Winter Showcase. Oklahoma City's Tre Mann followed with 40, the second highest single point total of the week.
The Mad Ants opened their second straight game with a big run, going up 13-0 with the exclamation point of a Justin Anderson three pointer to draw that 13-point total. The Mad Ants hit 7 of their first 8 three pointers on the way to a 44-31 lead at the end of the first quarter. Fort Wayne would lead by as many as 25 in the first but a 16-4 run for Oklahoma City to end the third narrowed Fort Wayne's lead to 44-31 at the first break.
The Mad Ants would extend the lead to 19 with Taylor, on assignment from the Indiana Pacers, going to work inside; he hit 6 of his first 8 shots. With just over 6 minutes to go in the half, Anderson found a streaking Trevelin Queen for a major dunk to throw momentum back Fort Wayne's way, although Oklahoma City was able to again rally to take the lead down to 62-55 with 3:38 to play on a Woodard dunk; the Blue would get as close as one point. At the halftime break, the Mad Ants led the Blue 77-70.
The third quarter featured Taylor going back and forth with Tre Mann as both of the assignment players from the Pacers and Thunder put on shows in the quarter. With 5:14 left, a David Stockton three pushed Fort Wayne's lead back to double digits at 98-88. In the closing seconds, Tre Mann's bucket moved the Blue back within one point again at 105-104. After three, the Mad Ants led 107-104.
In the Winter Showcase games, the fourth quarter features a target score of plus 25 of the score of the team leading after the third; that meant 132 was the target on Thursday. The Blue tied the game at 107 on a Mann free throw worth three points, the first tie since 0-0 but Anderson answered with a crossover, step back deep two on the other end to give the Mad Ants the lead back before Mann answered to give OKC their first lead at 110-109. Mann and Queen exchanged three pointers that cut the OKC lead to 116-115 several minutes into the untimed fourth. The Blue went up 125-118 on a big Woodard dunk and the Mad Ants cut it to 129-127 on a Stockton three pointer. Taylor would tie it at 129 in transition for the Mad Ants.
The game came to a close on a Taylor three pointer on a Mad Ants inbounds play with just six seconds on the shot clock to give the Mad Ants a 132-131 win; he added a game high 14 rebounds.
Behind Taylor's big night, Queen added 26 points and 10 assists and Deividas Sirvydis scored 19. Stockton (14) and Anderson (11) rounded out Fort Wayne's double-digit scoring. Behind Mann's 40, Oklahoma City got 25 points and 12 rebounds for Woodard and 21 points from DJ Wilson.
The Mad Ants ended the Showcase portion of the season at 12-6 and their four-game win streak was the longest in the NBA G League at the end of the Showcase portion. Taylor's double double was the 17th in his 22 game Mad Ants career while he broke the franchise record for shots made in a game with 20.
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