Effort to blame in Fort Wayne Mad Ants loss to Erie BayHawks
By David Kenyon
FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Steve Gansey preached effort and defense during the practices leading up to the regular season. Unfortunately, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants coach didn’t receive enough of either during the team’s 90-85 loss to the Erie BayHawks on Sunday at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
“We weren’t consistent with our energy and our effort tonight than in past nights like we showed against [the] Bakersfield [Jam]. That was probably the most disappointing thing,” Gansey said, adding the Mad Ants “didn’t do very well on the defensive end.”
After Nnanna Egwu buried a jumper to give Erie an 86-85 edge with 1:07 remaining in the contest, Indiana Pacers assignee Rakeem Christmas committed a careless turnover with a lackadaisical pass. Jordan Sibert, who scored a team-best 20 points for the BayHawks, then hit a pair from the free-throw line to put them ahead by three points.
Trailing by one possession with 14.4 seconds showing on the clock, Gansey said he wanted a quick two. Instead, Terran Petteway settled for a deep 3-point prayer and missed the mark.
Two free throws from Erie’s Keith Appling sealed the outcome.
Marcus Simmons tallied 20 points and nine rebounds to lead Fort Wayne, which once held a 10-point advantage and took a 54-46 lead into the locker room at halftime.
However, the team shot just 11-of-35 from the floor after the break, committed six turnovers during the final five minutes and allowed Erie to control the pace of the game.
“Our offense, our legs, everything wasn’t there,” Gansey said. “Offensively, when they scored, we would just walk it up. That’s not the tempo we want, that’s not the tempo I’ve been preaching.”
While Christmas and Walter Lemon Jr. netted 13 points each, they also combined for nine turnovers. Lemon constantly attacked the rim and slithered through BayHawks defenders for a couple layups, but the point guard’s aggressiveness caused a few of those mistakes.
“We’re working with Walt,” Gansey said. “He does have the NBA athleticism, NFL athleticism, whatever you want to call it. He’s extremely quick, but he needs to understand change of pace is going to be huge with him.”
C.J. Fair, who spent most of the night at the 4, had the toughest outing of all. Although the Syracuse product finished 1-of-10 and had four turnovers, Fair didn’t feel like he forced the issue.
“All my shots were the shots I normally take,” Fair said.
Pacers assignee Shayne Whittington sat for the third consecutive game due to a rib injury. His return date is to be determined.
For the BayHawks, Melvin Ejim added 18 points, while Tyler Harvey and Egwu chipped in 11 and 10, respectively. Erie notched its first win of the season, improving to 1-3.