Shaun Fountain's jumper with 5.3 seconds remaining lifted the Pittsburgh Xplosion to a 91-89 victory over the Albany Patroons tonight at the Petersen Events Center.
"Shaun is a very big part of what we're doing," head coach Carlos Knox said. "He has a knack for the ball at the end of games."
Fountain finished with 25 points to lead the Xplosion, with 21 of those coming in the second half.
It took an Xplosion comeback for Fountain to even have a chance to be the hero.
The Patroons opened a double digit lead early in the third quarter on a Nat Burton basket at 48-38. Burton paced Albany with 18 points.
But the Xplosion battled back to take the lead at 57-55 on a Fountain three pointer at the 3:20 mark. Pittsburgh led, 67-65, after three and also won the third quarter point.
"When we first came out, we felt like we were the better team," Knox said. "But then I felt like the complacency set in. I had to reiterate some things at halftime, and for the most part, the team responded.
The Xplosion did get off to a fast start, thanks in part to 12 first quarter turnovers by the Patroons. Pittsburgh's largest lead of the night came at the 4:28 mark of the first period on an Antonio Graves' three. Graves, who had 31 points Friday night in Yakama, scored 11 points in the opening quarter and finished with 23. Pittsburgh won the first quarter, 25-20.
The Patroons, who came into tonight's game averaging just under 20 turnovers in their four games, managed to turn the ball over 17 times in the first half but still lead by six at intermission. The Xplosion helped by shooting just 34.8 percent from the field in the first half and scoring just 11 points in the second quarter, losing the point, 22-11.
"It wasn't a pretty win, but we got the job done," Knox said. The Xplosion took 5.5 quarter points.
Albany at Pittsburgh
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Game No. 37 12/03/07 7:05 PM
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1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH Total Points
Albany 20 22 23 24 89 1.5
Pittsburgh 25 11 31 24 91 5.5
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Technical Albany Qtr Time Pittsburgh Qtr Time
Fouls 1 11:49 3 10:23
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Attendance: 258 Time: 0:00 Referees: Brothers, Tony
Adams, Bennie
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Albany Patroons
Name S MIN FGM FGA PCT FTM FTA PCT 3FGM 3FGA PCT PTS OR DR TR AST PF EF TO BS ST
1 Smith, Dajan * 27 7 16 43.8 0 0 0.0 0 1 0.0 14 4 5 9 1 1 0 1 1 1
2 Timberlake, Chad * 35 5 8 62.5 2 5 40.0 2 4 50.0 14 0 5 5 3 1 0 5 0 0
3 Burton, Nat * 42 9 16 56.3 0 1 0.0 0 0 0.0 18 2 3 5 1 2 0 4 0 2
4 Williams, Jason * 17 2 5 40.0 0 0 0.0 0 1 0.0 4 1 5 6 2 1 0 1 0 1
5 McCaskill, Amal * 28 4 5 80.0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 8 1 14 15 4 3 0 4 1 1
6 Jordan, Lucious 12 2 6 33.3 0 1 0.0 0 3 0.0 4 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 1
7 Bowers, Will 22 5 11 45.5 1 2 50.0 0 0 0.0 11 4 1 5 0 3 0 6 1 0
8 Shackelford, Dewayne 8 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 3 0 0
9 Sadler, Tom 11 1 1 100. 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
10 Powell, Rashaad 38 5 12 41.7 4 4 100. 0 0 0.0 14 2 2 4 3 5 0 3 0 0
TOTAL 240 40 80 50.0 7 13 53.8 2 9 22.2 89 15 35 50 17 18 0 28 3 6
Team Rebounds: 4 Team TO: 28
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Pittsburgh Xplosion
Name S MIN FGM FGA PCT FTM FTA PCT 3FGM 3FGA PCT PTS OR DR TR AST PF EF TO BS ST
1 DeGroat, John * 46 6 13 46.2 2 4 50.0 0 0 0.0 14 4 8 12 1 2 0 1 1 2
2 Mickens, Kevin * 26 4 6 66.7 0 2 0.0 0 0 0.0 8 2 3 5 0 4 0 2 3 1
3 Fountain, Shaun * 41 9 20 45.0 6 7 85.7 1 1 100. 25 0 3 3 5 4 0 3 0 2
4 Krauser, Carl * 31 4 12 33.3 0 1 0.0 0 1 0.0 8 0 4 4 2 2 0 3 0 2
5 Graves, Antonio * 46 9 19 47.4 1 2 50.0 4 6 66.7 23 0 1 1 4 3 0 6 0 2
6 Baker, Lawrence 23 3 7 42.9 4 4 100. 0 1 0.0 10 2 6 8 2 3 0 1 0 0
7 McCrommon, Chaz 2 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
8 White, Albert 25 1 8 12.5 1 2 50.0 0 1 0.0 3 1 2 3 3 1 0 2 2 0
TOTAL 240 36 85 42.4 14 22 63.6 5 10 50.0 91 9 27 36 17 20 0 18 6 9
Team Rebounds: 13 Team TO: 18
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