SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The Maine Red Claws put on a jump-shooting clinic Saturday night at the MassMutual Center, beating the Springfield Armor 104-97 in an NBA D-League game before a crowd of 4,211.
It was the first win for the Red Claws in four meetings with the Armor this season. They’ll play at 5 p.m. again today at the Portland Expo.
“We talked about that before the game and we had lost three times to them and they had been pretty good games,” Maine Coach Dave Leitao said. “This group is different and a lot of these guys hadn’t been to Springfield before or played these guys before, so it was new.”
This was a guard-led win for the Red Claws, as Kenny Hayes and Courtney Pigram scored 22 points apiece. Hayes was particularly impressive in the fourth quarter, knocking down jumper after jumper. He scored 16 points in the fourth quarter.
“Early on offensively, Courtney made some good shots and played strong physically and mentally, and obviously Kenny late,” Leitao said. “One we got into the pick and roll, he made some good decisions and got into his rhythm, and just inside the 3-point line he made a lot of shots.”
Pigram scored 17 in the first half, including four 3-pointers. The Red Claws led 48-41 at halftime, got into a back-and-forth game for the next 12 minutes, then took control in the fourth quarter with Xavier Silas (17 points), Hayes and Pigram on the floor.
“I thought about making subs but I didn’t want to disturb our rhythm,” Leitao said. “Xavier was playing well and rebounding the ball for us, talking and rotating and getting to the line, and Courtney was always a big shot waiting to happen, and Kenny was playing awesome.
“I thought about another rotation to get Ricky (Davis) and Jerome (Randle) back in there, but I went with my gut to ride those guys and see if we could get it right to the end.”
Twenty-one of the 34 field goals by the Red Claws came from the perimeter, including nine in the fourth quarter.
“Hayes played terrific and Pigram killed us in the first (half),” Armor Coach Bob MacKinnon said. “I did a bad job of preparing our team to play this game. We were not ready for those two guys off the bench and they hurt us. We’ve got to be much more aware, and that’s my job.”
The Red Claws wrestled away control at the start of the second quarter. Pigram, who hit a 3-pointer to cut Springfield’s lead to 24-23 at the end of the first quarter, made another 3-pointer in the opening minute of the second quarter to give Maine its first lead.
That shot was the start of a 20-2 run. Five Red Claws scored during the run, with Pigram scoring eight and Silas four.
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