Red Claws cruise past Armor, split weekend series
November 27, 2010 - NBA G League (G League)
Springfield Armor News Release
Behind Paul Harris' 22 points and 8 rebounds, the Red Claws cruised to a 114-98 victory over the Springfield Armor, on Saturday afternoon, splitting the weekend series at the MassMutual Center in Springfield.
Friday night, the Red Claws gave up a late game lead resulting in a last second loss to the rival Armor. On Saturday afternoon, the Red Claws gained control of the lead early, just like Friday night, however this time Maine refused to let Springfield back into the game. "They [Maine] were upset about last night," said Red Claws head coach Austin Ainge. "They came out and played aggressive."
Maine held a double digit lead for much of the game and every time the Armor tried to cut the lead to single digits the Red Claws had answers to counter it. "When we got the lead, we had guys off the bench like
DeShawn [Sims] and Kenny [Hayes] who would extend it," said Ainge. "Kenny pushed the ball well and DeShawn was a monster."
In the third quarter, the Armor came out of the break with much more passion and got to within 12 points, but within a minute Harris had extended the lead back to 16 after scoring on a put back and a nice drive and finger roll. "I texted coach last night," said Harris. "I told him âI'm going to be aggressive. I'm not going to settle for jump shots and I'm going to attack the basket.'"
The Armor kept fighting and got the lead back down to 11 with under four minutes in the third quarter, after an L.D. Williams slam got the crowd of 2,080 energized. But Red Claws guard Kenny Hayes came down the floor, drove to the lane and scored to stretch the lead back to 13.
The fourth quarter was much of the same. Armor played hard trying to cut into the lead, but in the end Maine was just too much for Springfield. "We needed big stops and big rebound and we didn't get them," said Armor head coach Dee Brown.
Harris led the Red Claws with his 22 points. Sims came off the bench to score 20 for Maine. Kyle Cuffe came off the bench and scored a game-high 26 points, while recording 9 boards for Springfield.
JamesOn Curry scored 22, while Scottie Reynolds knocked in 21.
The Armor and Red Claws began the weekend with identical 1-1 record and end the weekend with 2-2 records. These two teams will meet again next Thursday at the MassMutual Center in Springfield. Brown expects that Terrence Williams of the New Jersey Nets will make his Armor debut. Tipoff is a 7 p.m.
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