Game Review: Iowa Energy 120, Erie BayHawks 127

How do you beat a team that you've never beaten in nine attempts?

The Erie BayHawks supplied the answer to that question in rousing fashion, defeating the Iowa Energy 127-120 to improve to 14-25 on the season.



So, how did Erie finally beat the Energy? Let us count the ways:

1. By scoring a season-high 127 points.
   Erie entered the weekend averaging just 92.1 points per game. In last night's tough loss, they put up 111. Tonight, they made that look like a junior varsity effort. They scored at least 30 points in three of the four quarters and put up 66 in the first half.
   
   
2. By shooting lights out.
   Erie also entered the weekend shooting a league-worst 44.7 percent from the field. Tonight they were marksmen, connecting on 54.9 percent from the field, including 12-18 from 3-point range.
   
   
3. By feeding the hot hands. Yes, plural.
   Welcome to Erie, Blake Ahearn. After a so-so debut yesterday, Ahearn's second game as a BayHawk was a shooting clinic. He hit 5-8 from 3 and was a perfect 9-9 from the line, scoring 32 points to go along with 9 rebounds. Mike Gansey one-upped Ahearn from downtown, hitting on 6 of his 7 3-point attempts on his way to a 30-point, 11-rebound, 5-assist (with no turnovers) game.
   
   
4. By letting Cedric Jackson do his thing.
   He came into the night with bruised ribs and left with a limp, but that didn't stop him from another night chalk full of purposeful drives to the basket. He finished with 25 points on 8-13 from the field and 8-10 from the free throw line as well as 6 assists and just 1 turnover.
   
   
5. By getting some unexpected bench help.
   Although John Bryant got the start at center and managed to record yet another double-double in just 19 minutes of action, it was Kyle Goldcamp who played most of the crucial fourth quarter minutes (before fouling out with 4:26 remaining). His stat line wasn't spectacular, but stats don't always tell the story in the paint, and Goldcamp's feisty, scrappy play inside, particularly on the defensive end was key.
   
   
6. By playing with passion.
   Whether it was Blake Ahearn trying to dunk (didn't quite work out) or Jackie Manuel sprinting in to the other side of the court in disbelief/disappointment when he thought he'd been whistled for his sixth foul (they changed the foul to Goldcamp), it was clear that the BayHawks had a sour taste in their mouths from the way they let last night's game get away from them in the fourth quarter. Moreover, no one wanted to be on the wrong end of 0-10. Gansey and Ahearn both played all 48 minutes. Manuel played 47:22. Even the bench was on their feet swinging towels above their heads, trying to fire up the crowd in the final minutes. This was a team playing like it had to have this game.

Iowa didn't make it easy. After Erie surged ahead by 12 in the fourth, Cartier Martin did his best to bring the Energy back by himself, scoring 15 of his game-high 37 in the fourth. But the BayHawks made the plays they needed to down the stretch and Ahearn iced the game at the free throw line.

The BayHawks next game is a matinee 11 a.m. tipoff Tuesday morning against the Sioux Falls Skyforce.