The Steel City Yellow Jackets played their final home game of the 2016/2017 regular season yesterday as they faced the Cleveland AM Pro'ers yesterday at the Neighborhood Academy. Antonio Reddic would have a game for the ages scoring 52 points and leading the Yellow Jackets to a 137-134 victory.
The final playoff push is here in the American Basketball Association and the Steel City Yellow Jackets are right in the thick of things in the final week of the regular season. With two more games to go, the Yellow Jackets started their final playoff push with a game against the Cleveland AM Pro'ers at the Neighborhood Academy yesterday.
It was a high scoring offensive affair but, in the end, the Yellow Jackets would be the ones who would come out victorious winning by the final score of 137-134. Each team had their own offensive star who absolutely went off in the game and it made for exciting basketball throughout the night. The crowd was energized and ready to go and the two teams were excited to do battle.
This was a close ball game throughout and each team's star of the night was firing on all cylinders early on. For the Yellow Jackets, it was Antonio Reddic putting up 15 points in the first quarter alone. On the opposite side of the court, Jesse Hardin was having some offensive success of his own as he busted out 14 points in his first quarter of play. It was exciting to watch and it led to the Yellow Jackets leading 34-27 after one quarter of play.
In the second quarter, while Hardin slowed down a little bit, Reddic continued doing his thing as he added 20 more points to his total in the quarter. The only other Yellow Jacket who even came close to Reddic's production was Lawrence Baker who hit four three pointers in the first half. The Yellow Jackets defense played well in the second quarter shutting down Jesse Hardin, however, Simon Kucharewicz posted 15 points in the quarter to keep it close.
Thanks to a high scoring game, with minimal fouls, the first half flew by and the teams went into the locker room with the Yellow Jackets leading 74-64. Last time these two teams met earlier in the season the Yellow Jackets dominated the game winning by the score of 124-111. This time it would be an epic fight to the finish that pushed the Yellow Jackets and the Pro'ers to their limits.
Antonio Reddic would lead the Yellow Jackets in scoring going into half time posting 36 points. Reddic's season high prior to yesterday's game was 40 points, but his day was just getting started for the Yellow Jackets. He would be followed by Lawrence Baker, 12 points, and Jason Arrington, 6 points. For the Pro'ers, Jesse Hardin was having a great offensive day as well as he put up 23 points in the first half. He was followed by Simon Kucharewicz, 15 points, and Jamil Dudley, 10 points.
The offensive numbers continued to climb for both teams in the third quarter and some new faces started to rack up points. For the Yellow Jackets, Lawrence Baker continued to get on the board as he quietly put up seven in the third quarter of play putting his total for the evening up to 19 points. On the Pro'ers side of the ball, Morgan Jones collected a bucket and two three point shots to raise his total to 16 points on the night. With the lead sitting at 113-100, the Yellow Jackets would collect their largest lead of the night against the Pro'ers.
The final minute of this ball game left fans sitting on the edge of their seats. The Yellow Jackets lead 136-134 with one minute showing on the clock when the Pro'ers called a time out. There would be two more timeouts and the Yellow Jackets defense remained stingy keeping the score the same with just 20 seconds remaining. Then the Pro'ers committed four consecutive fouls to bring Isaiah Prince to the foul line with 10 seconds remaining. Prince would go one for two at the line to make the score 137-134.
With ten seconds left and the Pro'ers down by three, they got the ball into Jesse Hardin's hands. Hardin already had 44 points on the night and had hit eight three pointers up to that point. He pulled up at the three point line with six seconds to go and put up the shot. It would hit off the rim too strong and fell into the hands of the waiting Yellow Jacket defense. All the Pro'ers had left was a desperation half court shot by Hardin as time expired but it ended up going over the hoop ending the game.
The Steel City Yellow Jackets were lead by a break out performance from Antonio Reddic who demolished his season high scoring 52 points on the night. He was followed by Lawrence Baker, 22 points, and Bobby Swartwout, 15 points. Jesse Hardin had a big game for himself as well on the night as he lead the Pro'ers with 44 points. He was followed by Morgan Jones, 28 points, and Simon Kucharewicz, 20 points.
With the win, the Yellow Jackets improved to 13-8 on the season and finished out the home half of their 2016/2017 regular season with a record of 10-3. They were the number 21 ranked team in the country coming into action this week and with the win, and one more game tomorrow, the Yellow Jackets are looking to solidify their spot in the American Basketball Association playoffs for the third year in a row.
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