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Patriots Swing Tough Road Victory

January 16, 2004 - NBA G League (G League)
Asheville Altitude News Release


Asheville, N.C., January 16, 2004 - Junie Sanders scored 10 consecutive baskets in the fourth quarter to carry the Fayetteville Patriots to a 105-101 hard-fought victory over the Asheville Altitude Friday night at the Asheville Civic Center. The Patriots, who have won four of their last five match-ups at the Civic Center, had five players to score in double-digits including four out of five starters.

Desmond Penigar's game-high 28 points in 23 minutes were not enough to overcome the Fayetteville attack. The game was close in the final minutes, and Penigar, fresh off the bench, hit a three-pointer to bring Asheville within three with 6.1 seconds to go, but Omar Cook hit two clutch free throws with five seconds remaining to seal Asheville's fate.

The Altitude owned the paint, scoring 66 close-range points to Fayetteville's 36. But, three pointers played a pivotal role in the Patriots victory as they connected on 7 of their 13 long range attempts, while Asheville only sunk 1-of-6. One of those threes came from Jason Capel with 1:00 to play, putting Fayetteville up 100-96.

The Altitude reserves contributed largely for the second consecutive game, bringing Asheville back with a 12-2 run to give Asheville the lead 85-86 in the fourth quarter. The back-ups' tenacity kept the Asheville starters on the bench, including the red-hot Penigar who sat for much of the second half.

"The reserves made such a great run," said Head Coach Joey Meyer. "I didn't want to take them out so it messed up my substitution rotation a little bit. Maybe in hindsight I could have done something differently. Maybe they were a little tired from making the comeback."

Aside from Penigar, Asheville got minimum help from their starters who combined for just 18 points. Lavor Postell, who led the Altitude in scoring over the past two games, posted just two points, which came from the charity stripe with 4:16 remaining in the third quarter. Player of the Game Kareem Reid poured in 20 points off of the bench and Antonio Meeking and Brandon Kurtz each chipped in 10. Greg Stevenson wrestled down a team-high nine rebounds and added eight points.

Teamwork was the key for the Patriots who had three players register double-double performances. Sanders tied the Patriots leading scorer with 23 points, 14 in fourth quarter. Britton Johnson also registered 23 points including 11 rebounds while Bryan Lucas poured in 19 points, on 6-of-8 shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds. Omar Cook dished out a game-high 10 assists and registered 15 points.

Fayetteville and Asheville square off again tomorrow night, with the Patriots now leading the all-time series 12-10, in another game at the Asheville Civic Center at 7:15 p.m. The game will air on NBA TV as the NBDL Game of the Week.

"Hopefully tomorrow night we can do what we did tonight, and also do a couple of things differently and give it all we've got," said Kareem Reid.



NBA G League Stories from January 16, 2004


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