Recap: Dakota Wizards 103, Maine Red Claws 90

(Again, highlights to come whenever they show up.  Here's the box score.)

• This was an ugly game to watch.  Dakota won despite hitting just two of their first ten three-point attempts.  They did it by shooting free throws and playing great defense.  There were a lot of charges and balls lost out of bounds as well.  Then, as the icing on the cake, Futurecast crapped out with a little less than three minutes left in the game.
• Grizzlies assignee Lester Hudson appears to be with the Wizards for the long haul (at least because I haven't heard anything about this being a temporary assignment like we did with Thabeet).  Hudson certainly has some scoring talent, and he's a good rebounder for his position, but as a point guard he doesn't always look for his teammates.  He had a 2-on-1 in the second quarter, but instead of passing to his open teammate (I think it was Mo Baker) took a contested layup instead, which he missed (but was fouled, so I guess it worked out).  In fairness, he often made a pass that led to an assist for someone else, but he still seems to be more of a scorer than a playmaker.
• Corsley Edwards has some decent offensive moves, but he struggles to finish at the rim (he shot just 2-9), doesn't defend with any consistency, and looks like he should work on his conditioning.
• Paul Davis played some decent man defense against Edwards, but was a step or two slow on help defense and got into foul trouble fairly quickly, eventually fouling out out.
• Romel Beck was out for this game, with Renaldo Major starting in his place.  Given that Beck played just nine minutes in his last game I'm guessing it's an injury, but I never heard an explanation so who knows.  (Scott's Note: Beck was out with a hand injury.)
  
• Major, by the way, was fantastic yet again, with 15 points at halftime and 21 points overall, in addition to excellent defense against Morris Almond.
• Russell Robinson finished with 20 points, 10 assists and five rebounds.  He was a huge part of Maine's offense early on, then seemed to take a backseat for awhile before taking over again in the fourth quarter.  Given Almond's relative struggles, he probably should've kept it up the entire game.

Scott's additions: Darren Cooper and Marcus Dove played great defense as well - in addition to Major's superb effort.  It was probably the best gave I've seen from Major from the past two seasons - and I've seen nearly all 90 of them.  Dakota is tough on defense and deep.  Last note: As good as Beck is at scoring, Dakota's a much better team on defense without him.