SHAWNEE, OK – There was no dramatic comeback needed on Sunday night as the Potawatomi Fire rolled to a Game 2 victory 131-113 sweeping the Great Falls Electric and advancing to The Basketball League Championship series for the third consecutive season.
“I’m so proud of the guys,” said Fire head coach Mark Dannhoff. “They’ve worked so hard all year long. You know, coming into today, we’ve practiced 86 times and 86 times they’ve showed up ready to work. And for 26 games they’ve come out and given it their all. I want to give credit to Great Falls. That is a good team with a lot of good players over there. They had a fantastic season. This series wasn’t easy and I’m just so proud of the work our guys put in and to see it pay off.”
While the Fire won by 18, Game 2 started off much like Game 1 with the Fire finding themselves in a hole early. Great Falls jumped out to an early 10-2 and led by as many as 11 in the first. But the Fire fought back and led by one point after the first quarter. After a back and forth start to the second, the Fire grabbed a 29-27 lead with 10:29 to go and never looked back. The Fire outscored Great Falls by 17 in the second quarter to take a commanding 18-point lead into halftime. From there, the Fire were able to extend the lead out to as many as 24 in the 3rd quarter before Great Falls tried to climb back into the game. The Electric cut the Fire lead to as little as 12 with 4:48 remaining in the game before the Fire again extended the lead back out to seal the win.
“We knew Great Falls wasn’t going to go away,” said Dannhoff. “I knew they’d keep fighting and they made our guys compete for all 48 minutes to get the win.”
Jachai Simmons led the Fire with a season-high 29 points. Simmons hit a team high 5 three-pointers while also grabbing 4 rebounds. Deshawn Munson recorded his third triple-double of the season, finishing with 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 12 assists. He also had a pair of steals and a pair of blocks. Chuck Guy finished with 22 points, 7 rebounds, 12 assists, and 5 steals as he played all 48 minutes. Ricardo Artis II finished with 25 points on the night to go along with 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and season-high 5 steals. Rounding out the starters, Paul Harrison had one of his better games this season finishing with 21 points and 13 rebounds.
Off the bench, Jay Hedgeman with 11 points and 5 rebounds.
A full box score is available here.
“This was another team win,” said Dannhoff. “I know our starters played a lot but the minutes we got from our bench tonight were huge. Our guys are so unselfish and are always willing to put the team over themselves.”
With the win, the Fire will now move on to the TBL Championship series where they will face the Capital Seahawks. The schedule for that series will be announced in the coming days. When the schedule is announced, tickets will be available at potawatomifire.com/tickets.
You can also watch a live stream of the game at tbltv.tv or listen live on KGFF Radio (100.9 FM/1450 AM). To stay up to date with the Fire, follow the Fire on Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
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ABOUT THE POTAWATOMI FIRE
The Potawatomi Fire are the first professional basketball team owned by a Native American tribe (Citizen Potawatomi Nation) in Oklahoma. The Fire compete in the Central Conference of The Basketball League (TBL), a men’s professional basketball league, with roughly 40 teams across the U.S. and Canada. The Fire play their home games at FireLake Arena in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
Through their first three years, the Fire have established themselves as the premier franchise in TBL. Along with winning the TBL championship in 2023 and 2024, the Fire organization was named the 2022 winner of the Jim Koch Award as TBL’s Best Ran Business. The dance team of the Fire, the Fire Girls, were named TBL’s 2022 Best Dance Team and Central Conference Best Dance Team in 2023 and 2024.