Maine Red Claws point guard Kenny Hayes didn’t pull any punches after Thursday night’s 105-87 loss to the Erie BayHawks before 4,526 fans at Tullio Arena.
“We just can’t get punked like that,” Hayes said. “They just straight punked us in the second half. If we want to get better and have our goal be to compete for a championship, then we can’t allow that.”
The Red Claws blew a 13- point first-quarter lead and fell to 0- 2. Hayes scored a team-high 20 points, but the Red Claws got just 14 points in the fourth quarter.
Maine will play its home opener Saturday against Springfield. The Armor beat the Red Claws in the season opener last week, 94-87.
Mychel Thompson had 24 points and Donald Sloan and Chris Daniels each added 19 points in sparking Erie (1-2) to its first win of the season.
The BayHawks fell behind 19-6 in the first quarter and trailed 27-18 at the end of the first. Erie committed six turnovers in the quarter.
Erie bounced back with an 18-6 run at the start of the second quarter to build a 36-33 lead. Thompson’s third 3- pointer prompted Leitao to call a timeout.
Up 53-46 at the half, the Bay- Hawks opened the second half with a 7-0 spurt. Sloan scored four points and Daniels, a 7- footer, added a 3-pointer.
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