Post by Jeremy on Apr 20, 2002 18:50:21 GMT -5
The ValleyDawgs Can't Get A Season Opening Win
Well Friday night saw opening night in the USBL as the Blueducks of Brevard hosted the defending USBL Champions, the Pennsylvania ValleyDawgs. The only other game of the night featured the Brooklyn Kings hosting Mike Sweet and his Adirondack Wildcats. We saw in one game the game team won, in the other, the home team lost.
Brevard had an opening night with 2000 people on hand as they saw former 'Dawg Kwan Johnson light up 18 points on 5-11 shooting in a 115-100 victory. The leading scorer was Darryl Hardy as he scored 20 points for the first year Blue Ducks.
Something that really killed Pennsylvania was the free throws. They allowed Brevard to go to the charity stripe 53 times while they themselves only got to the free throw 28 times while making 19 of them. Clearly, Coach Dawkins isn't too happy with that stat. Corey Hightower, who missed much of last season due to a back injury, scored 28 points on 8-12 shooting. He was hot as was the three other 'Dawgs that scored double digit figures. Draft pick Juwan Justice went 1-4 from the field and scored 2 points. One thing that was missing from the game was a clear rebounder. Toby Sellers led the way with 9 boards but the 'Dawgs lost the rebounding war 47-50. That's not that big of a margin but last year, there were few times when the ValleyDawgs worried about their rebounding.
So the first game of the season is out of the way. Everybody on the team knows what they need to work on as they head to Florida Saturday night to play the Sea Dragons. We'll see if the 'Dawgs avoid an 0-2 hole to start the season.
Small Crowd Witnesses Entertaining Game
Last year, the Brooklyn Kings went through a dismal season with a 12-17 record. They were hoping to turn it around this year as they played Adirondack. The Wildcats are an expansion team who grabbed Mike Sweet during the off season to take care of their general manager duties. Only 417 people came to witness the Kings 2002 Opener. Those who were there watched a good game. It took overtime to decide a winner.
Corsley Edwards recorded a double-double with 32 points and 11 boards as Adirondack won 111-104 in overtime. Sean Simpson had a defensive presence for the Wildcats as he had 15 boards and 4 blocks.
Marvin Wells, Todd Myles, and Richard Posario all scored at least 20 points for the Brooklyn Kings. That wasn't enough though as they lost the rebounding game by ten. They did however had five fewer turnovers (19) than Adirondack (24).
Saturday features three games on the schedule: Kansas at St. Louis 7:00 p.m.; St. Joseph at Dodge City 7:30 p.m.; & Pennsylvania at Florida 7:35 p.m.