Omari Johnson lined up for the jump ball and couldn’t believe his good fortune. He was a few feet from the basket and nobody from Westchester was near.
Sure enough, the tap from Jordan Mickey early in the third quarter came to Johnson, who pivoted and flushed a two-handed dunk.
In the wrong basket.
He could laugh about it later, after the Red Claws avenged a lopsided Friday night loss with a 112-100 victory over the Westchester Knicks before a crowd of 2,132 on Saturday night at the Portland Expo.
“To be honest, I wasn’t thinking,” Johnson said. “Then the way they lined up kind of tricked me.”
Officials, realizing they lined up the players incorrectly, waved off the basket and called for a do-over on the jump ball.
Westchester’s 7-foot-2 center, Jordan Bachynski, scored on the ensuing possession to cap an eight-point run coming out of halftime, cutting Maine’s lead to three, but the Knicks (10-4) got no closer.
Bachynski finished with 22 points, one night after dropping 31 on a 14-of-14 shooting performance, but Mickey answered with 26 points and eight rebounds for the Red Claws (7-6).
Fellow Boston Celtics rookie Terry Rozier, who practiced with the parent club in Waltham on Saturday afternoon before driving to Portland for the game, added 13 points and 10 assists.
“It feels great to come in and help my team get a win against a team they lost to in pretty much a blowout (Friday) night,” said Rozier, speaking in stocking feet because he had just given away his red sneakers to a young fan. “You go from sitting on the bench (with Boston) to playing a lot (41 minutes). But if you’re a competitor, you want to play as much as you can.”
Johnson wound up with 21 points and drained his first three 3-point attempts. He and sixth man Levi Randolph (15 points, four assists) sparked an 11-0 run down the stretch after Westchester whittled what had been an 18-point deficit to five.
“That’s the thing about professional basketball,” Randolph said. “It’s a quick turnaround. We just tried to watch a little film about what happened (Friday) night and try to wipe that off, and come out and correct the things that we did (wrong Friday) and get the win.”
Reserve Coty Clarke added 13 points and 10 rebounds, and was one of the seven Red Claws to connect from beyond the 3-point arc.
“We played with more urgency on defense, stuck to our game plan better, and I thought we had much more positive attitude and energy coming from the bench to the floor,” Red Claws Coach Scott Morrison said. “And Terry helped, too.”
Jimmer Fredette, a former 10th overall draft pick with five NBA seasons under his belt, scored 19 points for the Knicks. Travis Trice added 17.
Ella Ellis, the West Point graduate seeing game action for the third time, sank two free throws in the final minute for the Red Claws, giving him his first points in professional basketball.
The Red Claws are off for a few days before playing twice in Iowa after Christmas.
They return to the Expo for a New Year’s Eve matinee against Texas.
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