Recap
SHAWNEE, OK – The Potawatomi Fire won their second consecutive Central Conference title Saturday night beating the Texas 7ers 142-116 to finish off the 2-0 series sweep.
“It’s hard to win a conference championship,” said Fire head coach Mark Dannhoff. “As I’ve said all season long, all the credit goes to these guys. They come in every day ready work so they can go out on the court and perform their best night in and night out.”
It was a back and forth first half with both teams using big runs to take leads. After the Fire built an early 12-point lead in the first quarter, the 7ers came storming back to ultimately lead by nine points with 4:29 to go in the second quarter. The Fire then closed out the half on a 14-5 run to send the game into halftime at 55 a piece.
“I felt like we were fairly lucky to be tied at half given the way we played,” said Dannhoff. “I told the guys that what I saw in the first half was not Fire basketball and that we needed to get back to our identity in the second half. Thankfully we did that, and we were able to get another win.”
K.D. Moore led the Fire with 34 points, six rebounds, and three blocks but it was Deshawn Munson who was the x-factor on the night. Munson finished with 20 points, 19 rebounds, and 12 assists for his 4th triple-double of the season. Chuck Guy had another great game as well, finishing with 22 points, 16 rebounds, five assists, five steals, and a block.
“I thought we got great effort from all of our guys tonight,” said Dannhoff. “K.D., Deshawn, and Chuck all had big nights, but we really needed everyone tonight and we got it.”
Paul Harrison was the final starter to reach double figures as he finished 19 points and five rebounds.
After missing the last three games with a toe injury, T.J. Maston put together a strong performance off the bench with 20 points and three rebounds. Ricky Artis II continued to make his case for 6th Man of the Year with 14 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and a pair of steals.
A full box score is available here.
With the win the Fire will move on to next weekend’s Regional Finals where they will play the winner of the Western Conference finals, either the Los Angeles Ignite or the Seattle Superhawks. The schedule for the Regional Finals will be released following the conclusion of that series. Be sure to follow the Fire on social media (Instagram, Facebook, X) to stay up to date with all the latest information on the Fire, including the upcoming schedule. You can watch a live stream of all of the playoff games on TBL TV or listen to the games on KGFF Radio (100.9 FM/1450 AM/KGFF.com).
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Story by Chris Cox / Photo by Kent Bush