The Erie BayHawks lost to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants 93-82 Sunday night, falling to 1-1 on the year.
Erie jumped out to a 22-14 first quarter lead, which made it seem like this might be a re-run from Friday night's win, but the Mad Ants stormed back to outscore Erie 56-38 in the second and third quarters to break this one open.
The BayHawks did a much better job taking care of the ball, committing just 12 turnovers (as opposed to 22 on opening night) with 19 assists.
Fort Wayne relied on a three-headed offensive attack. Ron Howard led the way with a much more efficient night 25 points on 13 shots (compared to 19 points on 16 shots Friday). Kyle McAlarney added 22, including four 3s. And Rob Kurz finally took and made a shot—several of them, in fact—on his way to a 16 point, 19 rebound night.
The BayHawks once again won the battle in the paint as John Bryant posted his second straight double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds. On the flipside, the Mad Ants had another less-than-stellar shooting night at 40.8 percent from the field, but they made up for it by hitting 9-20 from 3 and 22-26 free throws. Fort Wayne outscored Erie by a count of 49-18 on 3s and free throws alone.
Aside from Bryant, Donell Taylor was the lone standout for the BayHawks. The veteran guard posted a double-double of his own with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Even more impressively, he bounced back from a sloppy opener (2 assists, 6 turnovers) with a much more composed effort (7 assists, 3 turnovers). That's the ratio Erie would love to see on a consistent basis as they try to figure out their backcourt situation.
Jackie Manuel's shooting touch from Game 1 was nowhere to be found in this one and teammate Ivan Harris was no better. The two returning BayHawks combined to shoot just 8-30 from the field, 0-4 from 3-point range.
Coach Treloar played the starting five (Bryant, Harris, Manuel, Taylor, and Cedric Jackson) heavy minutes. Only Martin Zeno played more than 15 minutes off the bench. Kyle Goldcamp received a DNP-Coach's Decision for the second straight game, the only BayHawk yet to see game action this season.
The BayHawks' next two games are on the road against the Sioux Falls Skyforce (1-1) next Friday and Saturday, Dec. 4-5 before returning to Erie to host the Maine Red Claws (1-1) in their home opener Dec. 12.
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