Patriots earn split in four-game series with Dazzle
Published on January 3, 2004 under NBA G League (G League)
Fayetteville Patriots News Release
The Fayetteville Patriots and Roanoke Dazzle have spent the past eight days and four games trading physical Holiday Greetings with one another on the basketball court. The Patriots salvaged a split in the four-game series on Saturday with a 105-96 win at the Crown Coliseum.
Britton Johnsen led the way for the Patriots with 26 points and 11 rebounds, while Jason Collier added 23 points and 11 boards.
"We felt we needed to change our lineup to match their size,'' said Patriots coach Jeff Capel, who started both his seven footers â Darrell Johns and Collier â and 6-10 Johnsen and 6-8 Jason Capel. "When we play teams with 6-foot-7 power forwards then we will switch our lineup to match that. I guess that's the advantage of seeing a team as many times as we've seen Roanoke in the past week. You tend to learn some hard lessons."
In the previous two games of the series, both Roanoke wins the Roanoke's big man foursome of Geoff Owens, Josh Asselin, Chris Christoffersen and Kevin Owens had combined to shoot 67 percent from the floor while grabbing 44 rebounds.
On Saturday, they were a combined 14-for-32 from the floor and scored just 23 of the Dazzle's 96 points. "There comes a time when you have to stand up and fight,'' Patriots forward Jason Collier said. "I think we finally got tired of them taking it to us the last two times and we came out determine they wouldn't do that to us again tonight."
The Dazzle led 24-21 after the first quarter and 38-37 with 6:55remaining in the first half. But Collier would a turnaround jump shot to give the Patriots the lead. A minute-and-half later, Johnsen nailed a three from the top of the key. His three followed by two more 3-pointers by Kent Williams ignited a 15-2 run to put the Patriots up nine, 55-46 at the half.
The Dazzle never got any closer than nine the rest of the night as Fayetteville's lead ballooned to as many as 20 in the second half.
"We slowed them down tonight,'' said Capel. "It was important that we jumped out on them early because we were able to go into our zone and I think that really halted what they wanted to do in the second half."
The Patriots improve to 8-8 on the season and 2-4 against the Dazzle this season. Saturday, the Patriots play the Asheville Altitude for the first time this season. Roanoke is 8-5 and will play someone other than Fayetteville when it faces the Columbus Riverdragons on Friday.
Terrence Shannon led the Dazzle with 19 points, while George Williams ended the night with 18 points and six boards. 1 rebounds and Darrell Johns closed the night out with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
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