PORTLAND — The Mad Ants’ postseason magic continues.
The defending NBA D-League champions beat the Maine Red Claws 121-111 Saturday before a crowd of 2,437 at the Portland Expo to sweep their best-of-three playoff series 2-0.
Fort Wayne awaits the winner of the Canton-Sioux Falls series, which resumes Monday night in South Dakota with Canton leading 1-0.
Maine won the Atlantic Division with a league-best 35-15 record in the regular season and earned the Eastern Conference top seed. The Mad Ants, seeded fourth and the last team to qualify in the East, rallied to a 104-103 overtime victory Tuesday night in Indiana in Game 1 of the series.
Dating back to last season, the Mad Ants are 8-0 in the playoffs.
On Saturday the Mad Ants survived a strong start by the Red Claws, who had won nine in a row on their home court, and took a 33-26 lead when Xavier Thames sank a 3-pointer with a tenth of a second left in the first quarter.
Fort Wayne stretched its lead to as high as nine in the first half before Maine pulled even at 48-all. The Mad Ants threatened to pull away with a 16-point lead late in the third before Maine closed the quarter on a 6-0 run to make it 89-79.
The Claws had one final push in the fourth quarter, cutting the margin to two at 108-106 on a spinning drive by Romero Osby, who led Maine with 33 points.
Jordan Crawford answered with a 3-pointer to spark an 11-0 run for Fort Wayne to put the game away. Crawford finished with 31 points and C.J. Fair added 36 for the Mad Ants.
Davion Berry added 23 points for the Red Claws, whose best 3-point shooters (Chris Babb and Omari Johnson) went a combined 4 for 20 from deep.
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