INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Mad Ants got their News Year’s Eve celebration started early with a Sunday morning win over Birmingham, 132-127. The Mad Ants overcame 19 made three pointers for the Squadron (19/45; 42.2 percent) to pick up their third straight win and improve to 3-0 in the regular season. With the win, the Mad Ants move to 18-2 overall on the season as the first team in NBA G League history to win 18 of their first 20 games.
Indiana saw five players in double figures, led by Ben Sheppard’s G League career best 27 points to go with seven rebounds. Oscar Tshiebwe added 21 points and 15 rebounds, Jarace Walker added 18 points, Isaiah Wong and Jordan Bell each scored 16 and Elfrid Payton had 13 assists.
Birmingham was paced by 28 points and six made three pointers from Malcolm Hill, while Jalen Crutcher hit five threes and scored 23. E.J. Lidell scored 25 points in less than 20 minutes off the bench for Birmingham.
Despite not having as many lead changes (5) as Friday’s game between the two teams, it was a tight contested game throughout with the Mad Ants leading by as many as 12 while Birmingham’s three-point shooting was a great equalizer. The Mad Ants led by three points (30-27) after one and four (62-58) at the half.
The third quarter saw both teams flex their scoring with the Squadron winning the frame 43-42 with Crutcher scoring 10 and the team hitting eight three pointers. Sheppard scored 13 of his own in the third for the Mad Ants. Indiana pushed out to a comfortable lead in the fourth before a Birmingham push in the final minutes.
Indiana will return to action with a January 2 and 4 home series against the Santa Cruz Warriors.
Originally posted on gleague.nba.com