The score was tied with a little more than seven minutes remaining in the regular-season home finale for the Maine Red Claws.
Levi Randolph passed the basketball to Omari Johnson at the top of the key. A Delaware defender stuck a hand in Johnson’s face instead of trying to contest the 3-point attempt, which turned out to be one of those dead-aim shots that strikes the back iron and zips through the netting so quickly the twine appears unmoved.
Johnson laughed as he backpedaled on defense.
“The hand doesn’t matter,” he said with a wide smile.
The Red Claws never trailed the rest of the way, closing out their home regular season with a 127-124 victory over the 87ers before a crowd of 2,605 on Thursday night at the Portland Expo.
Maine (30-19) already had clinched the Atlantic Division title for the second straight year and wraps up its schedule Saturday at Westchester before a first-round playoff date – still to be determined – against Canton.
Randolph finished with a team-high 24 points and 10 rebounds. Celtics rookie James Young drained 7 of 10 from 3-point land and scored 23 points. Coty Clarke, back with the Claws after a pair of 10-day contracts with the Celtics, had 22 points and 12 rebounds.
After throwing away a pass in the final minute with the Claws clinging to a one-point lead, Clarke contested two game-tying 3-point attempts by Ty Greene of Delaware in the final 20 seconds.
“I just wanted to alter his shot a little bit,” said Clarke, who switched on to Greene both times. “He’s a great shooter.”
Maine Red Claws #4 Coty Clarke runs into defense by Delaware 87ers #13 David Laury III during first half action at Portland Expo. Jill Brady/Staff Photographer
Greene finished with 26 points and Rodney Carney added 28 for Delaware, which built a 98-87 lead late in the third quarter.
But over the final 1:12, the Red Claws put together a 10-3 run behind four bench players – Young, Andre Stringer, Coron Williams and Ralph Sampson III – and starter Corey Walden.
“Those guys picked it up, played solid, played with effort, and brought us back in the game,” said Coach Scott Morrison.
“We were going to go with them a little longer but they got tired and shot a couple air balls that we normally wouldn’t shoot. So we went back to the starters and those guys picked it up.”
The game featured 16 lead changes and 11 ties, the last of them at 110 before Johnson’s 3-pointer. He finished with 13 points and Walden added 12 to go with eight assists. Marcus Thornton chipped in 18 points and converted consecutive drives to put Maine up 119-114 with five minutes left.
The victory was the second straight for Maine, which had lost its previous four.
“It was important to play well,” Morrison said. “I didn’t think we did that for the first 30 minutes, but I thought we played great the last 16 or 17.
“It’s kind of on the guys now, which team they want to be. That first team that we saw, which was just kind of going through the motions and happy with settling. Or the team at the end, which played to win, which brought us back in the game and then pulled ahead.”
NOTES: As the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, Maine will play No. 3 Canton in the first round of the eight-team D-League tournament.
The first round is a best-of-three format, with the opening game at the lower seed and the final two, if necessary, at the higher seed.
Problem is, the Expo is booked for the Portland Home Show next weekend, so the dates of the playoff games have yet to be determined.
“It’s frustrating,” Morrison said. “We’re getting on the bus (to New York on Friday) and we don’t know how long we’re on the road for or anything.”
Malcolm Miller, who started 43 games for the Red Claws and averaged 12.4 points, separated his shoulder at Rio Grande Valley and is not expected back for the playoffs.
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