Steelheads ready for rematch with Wizards

January 31, 2006 - Continental Basketball Association 1 (CBA 1)
Gary Steelheads News Release


After a day off, the Gary Steelheads meet the Dakota Wizards at the Bismarck Civic Center in Bismarck, North Dakota. The game is a rematch of Monday night's game, won by the Wizards 88-85. For Gary, it will be the team's fifth game in seven days.

Monday night's game was tightly played from start to finish. The outcome wasn't decided until guard Jimmie "Snap" Hunter missed a three point shot as the clock expired in the final quarter. Although Hunter lead the Steelheads with 23 points, he had an off night from the field, hitting 10-of-28 attempts. Hunter, the CBA's leading scorer going into the contest, was guarded much of the evening by Dakota all star forward Kasib Powell. In addition to his defense, Powell tossed in 23 points with 12 rebounds and 9 assists.

"Snap" wasn't the only one having a tough shooting evening for the Steelheads. Forward Edmund Saunders and guard Eric Chatfield shot a combined 4-for-21 from the field. On the evening, Gary could manage only .402 shooting from the field. This negated a 14-rebounding advantage for the Steelheads.

Gary forward Randy Holcomb scored 14 points and added 8 rebounds in a losing cause, while Robert Griffin came out of a recent shooting slump with 12 points on 5-for-8 shooting from the field. Center Chris Alexander, playing against his former team for the first time in Bismarck, contributed his fifth double-double of the season with 11 points and 17 rebounds.

Fish Hooks

- This is the 24th CBA meeting between the Steelheads and the Wizards, and the fourth and final regular season meeting this year. Dakota has a 14-9 lead in the series. This season, the Steelheads have won two of the three meetings to date. On December 3rd, Gary prevailed in a 137-127 overtime thriller at the Genesis Center in Gary. On January 7th, the Steelheads won again 96-89 in Gary. On Monday night, the Wizards won the first meeting between these teams this season at the Bismarck Civic Arena, 88-85.

- Gary's 137-127 overtime victory was unusual in two respects. First, the 137 points scored by the Steelheads ranked at the time as the highest single game score in the CBA (subsequently surpassed by the Yakama Sun Kings). Second, the Steelheads overcame a 34-rebound deficit to win.

- Center Chris Alexander figured prominently in building that Wizards rebound advantage, grabbling 17 rebounds and scoring 16 points. This was one of his best performance in a Wizards' uniform. He joined the Steelheads in early December and logged his fourth double-double in Monday night's game. Alexander has averaged 11.4 rpg. and 9.3 ppg. since joining the Steelheads. He ranks third in the league in rebounding at 9.4 rpg. Alexander was the Steelheads' most nominee for CBA Player of the Week two weeks ago. He turned in two double-double performances in Gary victories over Idaho and Yakama. He averaged 16 ppg. and 13.5 rpg. for the week. Rockford guard Marlon Parmer won the award that week, averaging 23 ppg. and 11 apg. for the week.

- The Steelheads have won 6 of their last 11 games, reaching a season high water mark of three games over .500 twice in the past two weeks. Gary firmly retains second place in the Eastern Conference, despite winning only the Albany game this week.

- The Steelheads opened the season winning 3 of their first 4 road games. Since then, Gary has been 1-9. On January 15th, the Steelheads lost at Michigan on a last-second bank shot by Willie Simms 95-94. Gary's last road win was on January 6th, 109-102 at Albany.

- The Steelheads received a big lift as the second half of the CBA season began. Forward Randy Holcomb finished a ten-day call-up with the Chicago Bulls prior to the All Star Game. He flew to Boise for the mid-season classic and was named the game's MVP, the first player in Steelheads' history to earn an MVP award in the mid-season classic. Holcomb earned the honor, even though his Eastern team fell to the Western stars, 119-110. The 6-foot-8 forward scored 22 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in a losing cause. Holcomb has anchored the Steelheads' front line from the beginning of the season. The last player cut in the Chicago Bulls' training camp, Holcomb ranked 9th in the CBA in scoring (20.2 ppg.) and 7th in the league in rebounding (7.8 rpg.) when he was signed to a 10-day contract. His six double-doubles still leads the team.

- Guard Jimmie "Snap" Hunter stands second in the CBA with a 27.1 ppg. average. "Snap" now has logged three of the CBA's top six individual game scoring performances this year, including his 41-point effort at Rockford Thursday night. Hunter also ranks among the league leaders in assists (5.3 apg.), steals (1.9 spg.), three point shooting (.432) and blocked shots (1.0 bpg.).

- Steelheads' coach Jaren Jackson believes "Snap" is ready for the NBA. "Snap has proven that he belongs in the NBA," said Jackson, an NBA veteran himself. "He has improved his defensive game to compliment his great scoring ability. Since the beginning of this season, he has shown that he is the best guard in the CBA. I am happy to have been a part of his improved play this season. I have been in awe of Snap's basketball skills since becoming his coach. I mention him in the same light as many of the top NBA guards I played against in my own NBA career. Any NBA team will be lucky to have him."

- Forward Edmund Saunders' now ranks 8th in the league in rebounding with a 7.9 rpg. average. He is 6th in the league in offensive rebounding at 3.0 rpg. Saunders is averaging 13.6 ppg, third on the team. He scored a career high 31 points at Albany on January 6th. Saunders contributed a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds against Sioux Falls Saturday night. He followed up that game with another double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds in the victory over Albany. That string was broken when Saunders hit only 2-of-11 shots Monday night. He did grab 13 rebounds in a losing effort.

- Guard Brian Chase had a pair of sensational games earning him the team's Player of the Week nomination three weeks ago. Against the Michigan Mayhem, Chase connected for CBA career-best 26 points with 8 steals. The next night at Sioux Falls, Chase contributed a double-double 25 points with 10 assists. The honor went to Maurice Baker of Dakota. Chase hit 5 three point baskets in a 20-point effort against Rockford Thursday night. He scored 16 points with 5 assists against Sioux Falls last Saturday night.



Continental Basketball Association 1 Stories from January 31, 2006


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