On this particular night this often used cliche had never rung more true, on more than one instance. Of the nine players the Austin Toros played tonight, 6 of them have played in the NBA; the Charge currently have not one minute of NBA experience. Then consider the player that made the biggest impact, T.J. Campbell, who stands 5'9" and was guarding by four former NBA players, including long time vet and former Cavalier, Flip Murray. All things considered I don't think many people outside of Canton gave the Charge a chance. However there was never any doubt in that Charge locker room and the fans reassured them tonight that they were going to have their back, and made the Civic Center rock!
There were 19 lead changes and five of them were in a tight first quarter that seen the Charge finish with a 4 point lead. Tyrell Biggs took the very most of his opportunity of being back in the starting lineup and started strong with 8 points. Agudio had a great first quarter with 4 points and 5 rebounds, as well as Milligan with 4 and 4.
The second quarter proved to be the toughest for the Charge when they seen a 9 point lead go to a 6 point deficit in 4 minutes. In that span the Toros went 9 for 11 from the field with 4 three pointers. When I asked Coach Jensen about the poor 1st quarter on Sunday he said teams are going to go on runs and they need to just be steady. Tonight they let the Toros run in the second quarter but they also limited the damage and stayed in the game despite losing the lead. Campbell led the Charge with 5 points and 2 assists in the second and took a 54-46 deficit into halftime.
The Charge fought their guts out in the second half, they showed a ton or resolve and kept the effort going the whole half. They had the score tied at 60 four minutes into the half. A 7-0 run by the Toros jumped the lead back up to 67-60 but the Charge played pretty even the rest of the 3rd quarter. Kyle Gibson continued his great play in the quarter leading the Charge with 9 points.
The fans at the Civic Center saw quite the wild finish that included 8 lead changes in the 4th quarter. The charge took their first lead since the second quarter at the 7:35 mark and both teams played even til the last seconds. up one with 2:25 left Toros guard Marcus Dentmon misjudged a dunk and threw the ball completely over the rim and out of bounds, that proved to be such a crucial miscue as the game wrapped up. The Charge took the lead on a Gibson layup the very next possession. With 16.3 seconds left and the Charge down 2 Agudio fouled Dentmon and he hit both foul shots, giving the Toros a 4 point lead. Campbell wasted no time and came off of a ball screen to his right and popped a 27 foot pull up 3. After two more Dentmon free throws the Charge were down 98-95 with one chance left. T.J. Campbell took full advantage of the 9.8 seconds left...coming off of a ball screen to his left this time and made what seemed to be an impossible shot after being triple teamed. The crowd of 3180 at the Civic Center went bananas!
After a minute stretch of trading buckets the Charge got a stop with under a minute left. They ate the clock and hit their foul shots to end it. Getting out to an early lead in the series is such an advantage, it puts so much stress on Austin to win two in a row at home. The next game will be in Austin on Saturday at 7:30. Audio interviews from Jensen, Biggs, Blake, and Campbell from pregame and postgame ASAP.
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