SHAWNEE, OK – For the third consecutive year, the Potawatomi Fire won their conference championship and will play in The Basketball League’s West Regional Finals. The Fire claimed the Midwest Conference title after they finished off the sweep of the Logansport Iron Horses with a 134-109 victory on Saturday night.
“Winning a close out game is never easy,” said Fire head coach Mark Dannhoff. “We knew Logansport would play better, and they did. But I thought our guys fought hard and made the plays when they needed to for us to win. I don’t think we played great basketball but we played together and played for one another and that helped us get the win.”
While Paul Harrison led the Fire in points with 24, the night belonged to Deshawn Munson. Munson recorded his second triple-double of the season finishing with 11 points, 12 assists, and a team record 26 rebounds. He also blocked 3 shots and tallied 4 steals.
“This was vintage Deshawn tonight,” said Dannhoff. “He was so active on the glass and did a great job of limiting Logansport to one shot. He also got to the rim with ease and got his teammates involved. When you add in his effort on the defensive end, this was probably his best game of the year.”
Five other Fire players joined Harrison and Munson with at least 11 points. Ricardo Artis II finished with 19 points, 3 assists, and 2 steals. Chuck Guy finished with 16 points, 17 assists, and 4 steals. Ke’Tarrious Bouchum led all Fire reserves with 18 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists. Jay Hedgeman finished with 15 points and 5 rebounds. Finally, Isaiah Wade finished with 13 points and 7 rebounds.
Beyond Munson’s rebounds, the Fire also made some team history. The Fire finished with 45 assists, which set a new team record.
A full box score is available here.
With the win, the Fire will advance to next weekend’s West Regional Finals where they will face the Great Falls Electric. Great Falls finished the regular season 21-3 and are 4-0 in the postseason. The schedule for the Regional Finals will be announced in the coming days. Follow the Fire on Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube to stay up to date on the latest news and scheduling updates regarding the Regional Finals and ticket sales.
Regardless of the schedule, you can watch a live stream of the game at tbltv.tv or listen live on KGFF Radio (100.9 FM/1450 AM).
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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.