Last Night in the D-League; Moses Ehambe Can Shoot

Tulsa 66ers 109, Austin Toros 104 (Box Score)

I was at this game in person, and it really wasn't a great game until the fourth quarter.  The Toros were up by 23 at one point, but the 66ers clawed their way back and won it.  The most impressive thing was that it was Tulsa's bench leading the way, not the four guys who either were drafted by the NBA or have NBA contracts now that were part of the starting lineup.

• Moses Ehambe shot 6-7 from outside in the fourth quarter, 8-11 for the game and 9-17 from the field overall to finish with 29 points.  He just kept getting open late, and he just couldn't miss.  (Okay, clearly he missed once.)
• Latavious Williams has made some real strides on offense over the course of the season.  He shot 6-10 (for 14 points) and had a nice little turnaround jumper in the third quarter.  He had some problems against Eddie Basden, but on the whole did a good job getting position inside, and he had a key steal with 11 seconds left and a rebound with two seconds left, both of which essentially sealed the game.
• Marcus Lewis' conditioning could improve, but on the whole I liked what I saw from him.  He moves better than you'd think for a guy with his size and he sets pretty good screens.  Lewis had six rebounds and tied for the team-high with five assists along with six points in about 24 and a half minutes.
• For the Toros, Marcus Williams finished with 27 points and 10 rebounds, and generally looked like the best player on the floor for most of the game, though he also had six turnovers while running the point only about 20 percent of the time (not an exact figure), missed all four of his three-point attempts and was one of the guys who let Ehambe run wild late in the game.
• Dwayne Jones finished with 19 points and 16 board, but was oddly quiet in the fourth quarter.  In general he played pretty good perimeter defense on Byron Mullens, much better than he has in the past.  He also had a nice spin move early on, but in general still needs to work on his touch around the rim.
• Curtis Jerrells handled the bulk of the point guard duties, at least until the fourth quarter when he split them with Squeaky Johnson and occasionally Williams, but he had a relatively quiet game with 10 points on eight shots, four assists, three rebounds and six turnovers.  He got called for a charge late in the game that gave the 66ers possession (and led to yet another Ehambe three), as well as a pair of carrying calls at different points and a five second violation.
• Circling back to the comeback, while I generally think that this season might represent an even better coaching job by Quin Snyder than last year when he won the D-League coach of the year award, I can't help but think this loss could be chalked up to Snyder's decision to go with a seven man rotation on the second game of a back-to-back.  The Toros also have played six games in the last eight days, and some of those missed shots in the fourth (Williams, Jerrells and Eddie Basden each missed their pair of attempts) probably could be attributed to tired legs.

Idaho Stampede 165, Rio Grande Valley Vipers 153 (OT) (Highlights) (Box Score)

• Yes, that is the real final score.  Six players finished with more than 30 points, including Andre Barrett who led all scorers with 42 points on 24 shots.
• Rio Grande Valley got severely outrebounded 60-42, which is somewhat surprising for them.  No one on the Vipers had more than eight boards, while four Stampede...s? finished with at least a dozen, including guards Coby Karl and Donell Taylor.
• There were six technical fouls handed out, including one to each coach and two to Lance Allred, who was ejected roughly midway through the first quarter.  It doesn't look like there was one particular call that set him off, but he was called for two fouls (in addition to the technicals) and a three second violation in the three minutes that he played, so I'm assuming it was general frustration.
• Let's see, what else...Idaho had only 14 turnovers, which is somewhat staggering considering the number of possessions (they put up 111 shots).
• Ernest Scott took 13 three-pointers (and made seven of them).  No one else on his team took more than two.
• I'd love to hear from someone who actually watched this game.  Rumble, were you in the house?