The Shreveport Mavericks (18-5) fell to the Potawatomi Fire 123-111 at Fire Lake Arena in Shawnee, Oklahoma on Friday night. This was the second loss to the Fire this season.
The Mavericks stuttered not outside the arc but within as they shot 40% (27 for 67). The Fire could hardly miss as they shot over 70% on two-point shots.
The lead scorer for the Mavericks was Tyrone Jordan with 27 points. Center Paul Harrison finished with 19 points and 8 rebounds. Paul Parks netted 19. Deandre McIntyre scored 13 and grabbed 7 rebounds. Patrick Meyers snatched 7 rebounds. Tavin Cummings took 6 rebounds. A. J. Cheeseman had 5 rebounds.
Neither team could get too far from each other in the first quarter. A couple of late 5 point runs by the Fire were the difference. The score was tied five times in the first quarter as the Mavericks only took the lead once at 25-24 behind an Alanie Moore three. Paul Parks nailed two 3-pointers and made all three free throws on another attempted three and scored 11 in the first quarter for the Mavericks to keep them close. Potawatomi took a 34-28 lead into the second quarter.
McIntyre sparked the Mavericks back into the game with a three followed by another basket. Cummings gave the Mavericks the lead at 35-34 early in the quarter. The two swapped back and forth until 9:07 remaining. A scoring drought for the next two and a half minutes. The Fire’s Lyle kicked off another small 5-0 run to push the lead to 44-39. Potawatomi got hot late in the quarter again as they went on a 13-3 run with an exclamation by Traore’s dunk pushed the lead to double digits at 63-48. Shreveport grabbed five points in the final 47 seconds to cut the lead to 63-53 at halftime. McIntyre’s opening five points made him the lead scorer for the second period.
Potawatomi looked to widen the lead on another small 5-0 run triggered by Johnson and Munson. Shreveport’s defense kept the Fire from getting too far ahead. With 5:29 remaining, the Shawnee, OK team struck again with another small run and an 84-68 lead. Shreveport once again matched shot for shot to stay close. Potawatomi took a 92-75 lead into the final quarter.
Continued shot for shot wouldn’t allow Shreveport to catch momentum to cut the lead. The small 6-0 run struck again points coming from the charity stripe mainly increase the lead to 21 points at 101-80. The Fire’s lead had gotten as high as 25. With less than two minutes remaining, Shreveport got their 11-0 run but too little too late as the Fire took the 123-111 win.
The Central Division is not completely done in its shuffling for seeding. Strange enough a non-playoff team holds the cards for the final seeding, Beaumont Panthers. Shreveport will play their final game of the regular season tonight against Enid. Enid has two games remaining including a Sunday game with Beaumont. The Central Division could be chaos Enid loses their last two games and the Dallas Skyline win their last two games. This could set up a three-way tie among Enid, Shreveport, and Dallas for first place at 19-5. For the Mavericks, a loss to Enid on Saturday night could drop them to the fourth seed for the playoffs, if Potawatomi wins their final game against Beaumont on Saturday.
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