- Eyenga ejected in his Charge debut
- Player of the Game: Frank Hassell
- Tyrell Biggs continues to shine
Tyrell Biggs came out hot and it took a shot to the face that knocked him down and bloodied his nose to cool him off. Four and a half minutes into the game Biggs had 8 points and didn't look to be slowing down until a Ft. Wayne elbow put him down. the quick start carried the Charge in the first but Biggs wasn't finished. He reentered and scored the last bucket of the quarter, giving him 10 in the period, 17 in the first half and 26 in the game, to go along with 7 rebounds and 2 blocks. "He got hit in the mouth tonight pretty good and a lot of guys have a hard time coming back from that," Jensen said after the game, "He did a good job of coming back and staying focused."
With the Charge's double-double machine Dante Milligan on the bench most of the first 3 quarters with foul trouble Frank Hassell stepped right in and proved to be a great pick up. Hassell Finished with 22 points on 9-13 shooting and 12 rebounds, 5 offensive, along with 3 steals. The lone dual spot was a breakaway would be dunk that had the Civic Center ready for some showtime, that he lost control of. Coach Jensen talked about Franks contributions after the game, "He played really hard. It's not just because the shots fell and he scored some points. He was really good defensively and at rebounding. He did a really good job."
Christian Eyenga's night wasn't as good as I'm sure he wished. He finished with 3 boards and 6 points on 3 of 12 shooting, before being ejected due to his second technical with 50 seconds left in the game. Coach Jensen quickly pointed out after the game that technicals are never beneficial for a team and unacceptable. Though Eyenga had a bad night offensively Jensen still sent much deserved positivity his way after the game. "It was good for him because he got to play a lot of minutes. The thing that please me about Christian the most is he was into the game defensively. He wasn't thinking 'OK, I just came from the Cavs and I need to big time everybody and score 40 points." On one play in the 3rd, which the Charge outscored the Mad Ants 35-22, Eyenga out hustled a jogging Ft. Wayne player to a deflected ball in the backcourt. The highlight of the night was clearly on Eyenga's vertical leap showcasing dunk. Campbell through Eyenga an alley oop shortly before the end of the first quarter and Christian grabbed it out of the Canton Memorial Civic Center rafters and threw it down while almost leap-frogging Gilbert Brown. Add that to a 50 foot launch just tenths of a second shy of beating the buzzer and a diving save into the lap of myself and the shot clock operator TJ provided a lot of excitement with his 6 points and 8 assists. Keith McLeod also added 8 points and 8 assists.
*Charge hit a season high for total points (114), FG made (44), FG % (54.3%) and held the opponent to a season low 38 points in a half.
*The Charge improve to 8-7 on the season and 2-1 against Ft. Wayne and head to Ft. Wayne tonight for the second of a back-to-back.
*Ft. Wayne fired their coach Joey Meyer before the game. Meyer, the son of Hall of Famer
Ray Meyer, coached Canton McKinley's own Brian Bowden at Depaul. Meyer is also given a lot of credit for developing Cavalier G Ramon Sessions during their days together with the Tulsa 66'ers.
*Steve Gansey, a Cleveland native, replaced Meyer as Head Coach. Gansey is an Ashland grad and his brother Mike starred at West Virginia and was a D-League All-Star in 2010.
MANNY HARRIS UPDATE
Manny was again with the Charge on the bench and was getting a great stationary workout in during pregame with coaches and players. When I tweeted @313MannyHarris: how long you thinkin til you lace em up for the Charge? Manny responded: Soon, almost 100%, then get back in basketball shape!
There's no one happier to see Manny play in Canton then the people of Canton, he's a great player that has had some adversity and we're lucky we can keep him in the Cavs family.
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