PORTLAND – Basketball teams spend countless hours diagramming plays and running them in practice. Sunday night, the Maine Red Claws threw their playbook away.
In the end, it simply became a matter of getting the ball to point guard Kenny Hayes and letting him loose.
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Hayes scored a franchise-record 52 points to lead the Red Claws to a crucial 118-113 over the Springfield Armor at the Portland Expo. Hayes scored 26 points in the fourth quarter, at one point scoring 17 consecutive Red Claws points, to lead a comeback from a 17-point third-quarter deficit.
“I’ve been in grooves like this before, but not a 50-point groove,” said Hayes, who finished one point shy of the NBA Development League record of 53 (shared by two players, including Red Claws teammate Morris Almond). “Man, my coaches and teammates were just saying, ‘No plays. Just put the ball in his hands and see what he can do.’ And they believed in me and we won the game.”
And the win, Maine’s second over second-place Springfield in three days, was very important. The Red Claws (15-22) still have hopes of getting back into the playoff race. They know they need to win most of their remaining 13 games, and this is a good start.
“We came back from the all-star break and talked about recommitting to what we have in front of us,” said Claws Coach Dave Leitao. “There is still time for us to make the playoffs. But the only way to prove it is to play this way.”
Hayes had a tough start, with three early turnovers, but made up for it with a fantastic finish.
Springfield, which dropped one game behind Iowa in the race for first in the Eastern Conference, opened a 17-point lead early in the third and was still up by 13 late in that quarter.
But the Red Claws got the deficit to seven entering the fourth, 83-76, and then Hayes went to work.
He tied the game at 92 with two foul shots. Almond, who had a quiet 31 points (“I was a good wing man tonight,” he said. “I played that role well.”), gave Maine the lead with a foul shot with 6:36 remaining.
His backdoor layup, off a beautiful pass from Justin Brownlee, made it 97-92, Maine. Hayes then scored his team’s next 17 points, many on the same move — a hard dribble left into the lane followed by a step-back jumper that hit nothing but the bottom of the net.
He also buried two 3-pointers in the run, including one from straight on with Springfield’s Jerry Smith in his face.
“I was feeling it,” said Hayes, whose previous career high was 32. “I thank my coaches and teammates for believing in me.”
Brownlee said it was impossible to not give him the ball.
“When someone’s that hot,” he said, “you just got to let him have it.”
The Armor were helpless to stop him.
“He just got into one of those rhythms, got the confidence going and he wasn’t missing,” said Smith. “You just contest every shot. That’s what I was trying to do.”
Hayes’ final two points came on two foul shots with 1:31 remaining — the crowd giving him a standing ovation as he shot them — to give the Red Claws a 114-102 lead.
“The biggest thing now is that we’ve got to stay focused,” said Hayes. “It was a good game, a career game for me, but now we’ve got to move past it and try to get some road wins. Our goal is to make the playoffs.”
NOTES: The Red Claws hit the road for three games (Tuesday at Erie, Thursday at Fort Wayne, Saturday at Canton) before returning home for a 5 p.m. Sunday game against the first-place Iowa Energy. … In addition to setting the team record for points in a game, Hayes also set records for field goals made (18) and attempted (29) — both previously held by DeShawn Sims — and tied the record for free throws made in a game (12) — set by Paul Harris last Dec. 18.
Staff Writer Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or at:
mlowe@pressherald.com
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