EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — On Tuesday night, in just their second ever matchup, the South Bay Lakers and the College Park Skyhawks battled their way to a 100-100 tie with just over five minutes left to play.
In perhaps their best late game stretch of the season, South Bay paired a blazing offensive pace, featuring three triples and a few easy layups, with a suffocating defensive effort, including 11 stops on the Skyhawk’s last 14 possessions, running the score up to a final mark of 121-107.
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South Bay Head Coach Zach Guthrie was pleased with the gritty nature of the team’s late push to victory.
“We were organized offensively, and we were guarding on the other end of the floor. We were able to get into the basketball, dictate terms, we weren’t following RayJ Dennis around, and we had a good physicality and edge to our defense,” said Guthrie.
Dennis, the Skyhawk guard that Guthrie had high praises for, had 24 points and 10 assists on the evening, his second 20+ point performance at the UCLA Health and Training Center this season. The first came on December 16, when Dennis dropped 28 as a member of the San Diego Clippers.
It was a top heavy game for the Skyhawks, with Dennis and former first round pick Asa Newell combining for 50 points. Kobe Johnson, the younger brother of Atlanta Hawks star Jalen Johnson, finished with 17 as well despite only shooting 3-12.
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South Bay’s stars showed up as well, with Bufkin scoring 19 points in his first game after his 10-day contract expired, and R.J. Davis scoring a team high 21 points and giving it his all on the defensive end as well, including a crucial charge he drew when the game was still knotted at 100.
“Me taking that charge allowed us to have some confidence going up the other side of the floor, and we just made big time plays. Gus (Augustas) made a huge three to get us going, and I just followed up with it.”
Davis’ follow up included 10 clutch points on that final Laker 21-7 run.
Guthrie echoed Davis’ sentiments of just how deep the team can be.
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“You never know what night it’s gonna be RJ’s night, Gus’ night, AK’s night, Kobe down the line, Chris Mañon,” said Coach. Each of these guys have had big scoring nights and big nights where they’re playing the star role for us, I think they all contribute in a lot of ways.”
Whether it was Arthur Kaluma’s timely triples, Marčiulionis’ triple to start the run, or Anton Watson’s late scoring to break the game open, the Laker’s seven scorers in double figures on the evening were all crucial to this grind-it-out victory.
On a night where the shooting efficiency wasn’t there for South Bay, the real advantage came on the defensive end, especially in the third quarter, where they held College Park to 15 points, their lowest in a quarter so far this regular season.
A bulk of the credit on the defensive end has to go to the Lakers’ anchor, center Kylor Kelley, who recorded his fifth double double of the regular season with 16 points and 10 boards to go along with six rejections, tying his season high.
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“Defense, we started out a little flat in the first half, and then we came out and showed what we can really do,” said Kelley. Same with the last game against Mexico City, we fell short in the first game, and then in the second game it was defense, the main point.»
The Lakers rode this impressive defensive effort to improve to 7-6 on the year, with a home record of 6-1.
They will look to replicate their level of intensity and camaraderie in the last five minutes of Tuesday’s game on Thursday, when they take on the Salt Lake City Stars, a team they suffered a pair of losses to earlier on in the season.
Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. once again from the UHTC.
