Lightning use late rally to topple Waves 142-131
Murray scores 33 in Game 1 of IBL Finals; L.A. bench sparkles
Lamond Murray and Billy Knight combined for 22 fourth-quarter points Saturday night to help the Los Angeles Lightning beat the Oregon Waves 142-131 and grab a 1-0 lead in the best-of-3 IBL Finals.
Murray, a former NBA standout, tossed in a game-high 33 points in the pro basketball game while Knight had 26 points, six rebounds, eight assists and three steals off the bench in front of an enthusiastic crowd at Cal Lutheran's Gilbert Arena.
Fred Vinson added 23 points on 7-16 shooting from downtown. Forward Chris Ayer added 21 on a night when L.A.'s reserves outscored their counterparts 64-19. Trayvon Lathan made all seven of his shots and finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and five assists for L.A., which outscored the Waves 45-34 in the final period.
The Lightning had 15 first-half turnovers but still led 65-63 at intermission thanks to 58.7-percent shooting.
"You want to come out and get that first one," said coach Ron Quarterman. "Now we've got to carry over that fourth quarter to Sunday. Our defense really picked up down the stretch."
L.A. (17-4) used a 12-2 run midway through the final period to stretch a two-point lead to 127-115. Vinson, an assistant coach with the L.A. Clippers, started the run with a trey and Murray finished it with a triple and a slam-dunk follow.
Toby Bailey had 10 points, 10 rebounds and six assists as the Lightning won for the ninth time in 10 games.
David Lucas led the Waves (15-8) with 28 points while David Jackson had 26 (6-10 on 3's) and Robert Day collected 24 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Lamar Hurd had 21 points and eight assists for Oregon, which put all five starters in double-figure scoring.
The Lightning improved to 16-0 when scoring at least 116.
"Every time we got up by five and thought we were pulling away, we'd turn the ball over two times in a row and they'd get back into it," said Murray, who had an NBA career-high of 40 for the Cleveland Cavaliers. "When we got tired, our bench guys came in and kept the energy up. They took it to another level, got into transition and made some easy buckets.
"That made it that much harder for them because they didn't have a deep rotation. We wore them down at the end."
The Lightning will be seeking their first IBL title in their second season on Sunday night when the teams meet in Game 2 at 7 p.m. A third game would be played on Tuesday at 7 p.m., if necessary.
