Donald Sloan And The Reno Bighorns Are Moving On To The NBA D-League Semifinals

The Reno Bighorns are headed to the NBA Development League semifinals after defeating the Erie BayHawks, 99-87, to win the three-game series in -- are you ready for this? -- three games.

The Bighorns and BayHawks seemed to be slated for another close finish with the two teams tied at 74 a few minutes into the fourth quarter, but a 9-0 run capped off by a Marcus Landry three-pointer pretty much put the finishing touches on the series with over 6:48 left in the fourth quarter.

Bighorns rookie point guard Donald Sloan flirted with a triple-double before finishing up with 17 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists while taking my Game 3 MVP award. Florida State product Anthony Richardson led Reno in scoring with 22 points to go with his seven rebounds while Marcus Landry struggled from the field (7-of-25 including 3-of-11 from beyond the arc) before finishing with 20 points in 41 minutes.

On the other (read: losing) end of the spectrum, Ivan Johnson finished a very successful D-League season with 28 points and six rebounds. Unfortunately, the rest of the team couldn't match his output while shooting just 43 percent from the field. Fortunately, Blake Ahearn made up for a dismal 5-of-13 performance by posterizing Landry with a vicious dunk that can be watched in the highlights below.

In all honestly, nobody should be surprised by this series' outcome as I successfully ranked the Bighorns ahead of the BayHawks in my postseason power rankings (which I'm sure you all read).