ERIE, Penn. — The Erie BayHawks (0-3), NBA G League affiliate of the Atlanta Hawks Basketball Club, fell to the Maine Red Claws (3-0) tonight 116-101, in its home opener. Maine now holds a 2-0 regular season series lead over the BayHawks.
Maine jumped out to a quick 12-point, 26-14 lead. Erie clawed its way back to finish the quarter on a 10-2 run. At the end of the first quarter, the BayHawks found themselves down by four, 28-24. Tommy Williams opened the second quarter with a jumper, cutting Erie’s deficit to two, 28-26. The BayHawks took a one-point, 41-40, lead at the 4:03 mark of the second quarter off of a Raphiael Putney jump shot. Erie’s one-point lead would be its largest lead of the game. Maine ended the half on an 11-7 run, holding a five-point, 52-47, lead heading into halftime.
Raphiael Putney opened the second half with a bang, as he drilled a three-pointer to bring the BayHawks within two points, 52-50. Devin Williams extended the Red Claws lead, 73-63, off of a dunk at the 4:25 mark of the third quarter. After three quarters of action, Maine held a nine-point, 81-72 lead. Maine opened up the final quarter of play on a 15-4 run, extending its lead to 20 points, 96-76, with 8:24 left to play. The Red Claws came out of tonight’s contest with a 15-point, 116-101 victory.
Josh Magette dished out a team-high nine assists, to go along with nine points, four rebounds and one steal in 29.2 minutes of play. In three games this season, Magette is averaging 12.3 assists per game. Newly-acquired forward Raphiael Putney finished tonight’s contest with a game-high 23 points on 9-12 (.750) shooting from the floor, including a 4-6 (.667) clip from three-point territory, six rebounds and two blocks in 24.5 minutes of action. DeAndre Daniels chipped in a team a team-high eight rebounds and six points in 24.2 minutes as a reserve.
Maine had seven players score in double-figures tonight (Josh Adeyeye-20, Daniel Dixon-19, Andrew White-18, Devin Williams-15, Kadeem Allen-13, Trey Davis-12 and Jerome Seagears-11). Williams notched a double-double with 15 points on 7-11 (.636) shooting from the field and a game-high 10 rebounds in 24.1 minutes as a reserve. Trey Davis also registered a double-double coming off of the bench, finishing with a game-high 10 assists, 12 points, two rebounds and one steal in 25.0 minutes of play. The Red Claws held a 10-point (54-44) advantage in points in the paint tonight.