Portland Blasts International Competition
June 12, 2013 - International Basketball League (IBL)
Portland Chinooks News Release
Portland, Oregon - The Portland Chinooks were too much to handle on Friday night in IBL action at Eastmoreland Courts. Their game versus the Nippon Tornadoes from Japan was as high-scoring and fast-paced as can be expected in the IBL. Portland treated the home crowd to a nearly 200-point thriller, in the end winning by the lopsided margin of 93, 185-92. It's the Chinooks (6-5) third straight win and their sixth in eight games.
Portland led from the start. The game was never tied and they never trailed. David Lucas (6'8" F - Oregon State) was unconscious early, scoring the game's first seven points. Nippon didn't score until it was 14-0. The Chinooks tallied 31 points in the opening five minutes. It was all over after one quarter, with Portland leading 49-17. They ran up their lead to 90-43 at the break, in the highest scoring half of the IBL season to date.
The second half saw the home team play a lot of players and rest the main starters. The Chinooks previous season high was 139. They were one point shy after three periods, leading 138-64. Portland scored at least 40 points in every quarter, taking their biggest lead of 96 in the closing seconds, but Nippon made sure they didn't go down by triple digits.
Lucas' lit up the nets all night and finished with a near career-high of 50 points. His previous was 60. Plenty of other Chinooks got involved with six of his teammates in double figures. Germain Jordan (6'6" F - Dillard) netted a triple double with 16 points, and 14 rebounds and assists. Joe Wolfinger (7'1" C - Washington) in his return to the Portland roster shined with 24 points and 9 rebounds. The league's leading scorer, Jared Cunningham (6'9" F - Cleveland State) was held to 22 points and 8 rebounds. Mike Hart (6'6" G - Gonzaga) came alive on the boards with 20. Terrance Two Two and Kevin Ford (6'9" F - Oral Roberts) had 18 and 16 points respectively off the bench.
Portland shot a blistering 67% from the field, 70% in the first half. They annihilated Nippon on the glass with 100 rebounds to their 33. Another telling statistic was the Chinooks 60 assists to their opponent's six.
The Tornadoes were led by Marcus Bradford's 43 points, 13 rebounds and five steals. Hikaru Sasaki added 30 points, while Toshiya Katase scored 10.
These teams meet again at Eastmoreland on Sunday at 5:00pm. Portland and Nippon have four remaining meetings scheduled in the regular season. With the win, the Chinooks maintain their slim lead of a half game over Salem, who comes to town next Friday.
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