A loose and fast first half got tight at the end with the Texas Legends surviving 122-119 over the Sioux Falls Skyforce on Saturday night at the Sanford Pentagon.

After combining for 140 points in the first half, point production fell moderately after intermission as both teams made defensive adjustments. Texas (10-10) had the league’s top scorer in Justin Dentmon exploding for 18 points in the second quarter hitting 6-8 from the floor and 2-2 from the line. For the game the former League MVP logged 31 points with 6 assists.

Sioux Falls (8-11) had a chance to tie the game late, but a deep try by Larry Drew II missed the mark with the final buzzer sounding soon after the attempt. Tony Mitchell led the Skyforce with 28 points, 5 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks.

Even though the game was tight, Texas had a huge rebound advantage especially on the offensive glass (19-8) which led to a 20-point advantage for the Legends in Second Chance Points (27-7). Skyforce Coach Nevada Smith pointed to that as an area of concern.

“We gave up 11 (offensive rebounds) in the first quarter. We did a decent job after that. Right now we’re a little smaller at the wing position. I can’t fault our effort, but we’ve just got to come up with a couple more.”

In just his fourth game with the team, Skyforce forward Alonzo Gee is making his mark and has scored at least 15 points in each contest including 19 points along with 8 rebounds against the Legends. In this particular ballgame, Gee knows they left some potential points out there.

“We missed some easy layups as a team and got outrebounded, but I thought we fought hard. We do those two things a little bit better, we would have had the game.”

Gee was the third highest Skyforce player in points as Ike Nwamu’s 23 points can attest. Meanwhile two Legends had double-double performances with Johnathan Motley (20 points, 13 rebounds, 4 blocks) and Jameel Warney (17 points, 11 rebounds) supplying those.

Texas will be off for a while as their next go-round will come on Saturday December 30 with the Agua Caliente Clippers. Sioux Falls will pick it back up on Christmas Day (Monday) against the Memphis Hustle.


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