INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Mad Ants handed Motor City their first loss of the season on Wednesday afternoon, 117-107. Oscar Tshiebwe posted a franchise record 28 rebounds with his third game of at least 20 points and at least 20 rebounds this season. Fort Wayne shot 46.6 percent from the field to Motor City’s 44.8 in the game.
Indiana shot out to an early lead, in part with a big start from Tshiebwe. A 7-0 run for Motor City out of the first timeout of the game pulled them back within one at 16-15 with 5:10 left in the first quarter. Reigning G League Player of the Week Jared Rhoden scored nine in the first quarter and Motor City led 25-22 at the first break.
Mad Ant Isaiah Wong hit the first basket of the second quarter to tie the game back up at 25 with a three in front of the Motor City bench. The teams exchanged second quarter leads with Indiana pushing their lead to six, 38-32, with 7:38 to play in the half on a Kendall Brown free throw. Indiana would push the lead to nine before a Rhoden basket at the 6:15 mark, but a Darius McGhee return three gave the Mad Ants their first double digit lead at 44-34. Indiana held a 56-51 advantage at the half.
With 5:01 left in the third, a Reid Travis three pointer extended the Mad Ants lead to a then game high 83-65. A big quarter from Pacers assignment player Jarace Walker pushed Indiana to a 94-82 lead at the final break; Walker scored 14 in the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Tshiebwe pulled down a defensive rebound to break the Mad Ants single game rebounding record of Rob Kurz that was set in 2010. Tshiebwe finished with the aforementioned 28 rebounds and also a franchise record with 20 defensive rebounds. Zavier Simpson scored a game high 31 points to lead Motor City, while Rhoden added 26. All five Cruise starters finished in double figures scoring with Buddy Boeheim adding 16, Tosan Evbuomwan scoring 12 and Jontay Porter scoring 10.
The Mad Ants also saw all five starters in double figures, led by Walker’s 30 points and 20 from Tshiebwe. Isaiah Wong added 18 points, Ben Sheppard (on assignment) scored 12 and Kendall Brown had 11. Pedro Bradshaw added 10 rebounds off the Indiana bench.
Originally posted on gleague.nba.com