Fort Wayne Mad Ants vs. Lakeland Magic game recap:
Fort Wayne drops back and forth game to Lakeland on Sunday afternoon
Orlando, Florida (February 28, 2021) – Sunday afternoon’s game was tightly contested throughout with Lakeland pulling off a 101-98 win against Fort Wayne. The contest saw 28 lead changes and 12 ties.
Mamadi Diakate led the Magic with 25 points, 15 rebounds and 5 blocks while Fort Wayne was led by Cassius Stanley’s 20 points and seven rebounds.
The Magic also led in shooting with 41.3 percent to Fort Wayne’s 37.1 percent. Fort Wayne did hold a 55-48 advantage in rebounding.
With 2:46 to play in the first, Tahjere McCall found the basket on a one-on-one break to increase Lakeland’s lead to 20-16. That was the biggest lead in the game for either team to that point. That lead came off a nine-plus minute first quarter run that saw 10 lead changes and two ties. With 1:09 left, D.J. Hogg’s three pointer broke a tie and gave Lakeland a 23-20 lead that they would have at the quarter break.
The second quarter started with much of the same mirroring on the scoreboard. Both teams would lead by as many as four points with Lakeland getting over the top of that on a Billy Garrett basket with 5:04 left in the half. A Brian Bowen II three pointer on the other end took that six-point lead back to three. Devin Cannady’s three pushed the Magic lead to nine at the 2:31 mark and Lakeland would lead 56-51 at halftime.
The first half saw 18 lead changes between Fort Wayne and Lakeland.
With 7:34 left in the third, Stanley found a pass from Josh Gray in the corner in front of the Lakeland bench and hit his third three of the game to make it a 62-60 game, still in Lakeland’s favor. With 5:30 left, Jalen Lecque took the ball to the rim for a score that put Fort Wayne up 64-62. Fort Wayne increased their lead at the free throw line with Amida Brimah and Lecque free throws that made it 77-69. After three, Fort Wayne led 77-74.
Lakeland took the lead back at the 11-minute mark of the fourth, themselves on the line with Hogg converting before Robinson answered on the other end, again at the free throw line. The teams continued to trade the lead until Bowen II broke the tie with 6:53 to play on a layup and then extended it less than 10 seconds later at the free throw line after a technical foul. With 4:58 to go, Gray drove around the Magic defense to make it 91-84 with a layup, Fort Wayne’s biggest lead to that point. Lakeland surged back and an Andrew Rowsey basket with 3:45 to play cut the Mad Ant lead to 91-89.
With 3:15 to play, a Robert Franks three pointer gave Lakeland the lead back but Fort Wayne struck back with Robinson inside to lead again themselves and then Garrett took it back on a cutting layup for Lakeland. With 58.4 seconds left, Stanely pulled up from the top of the key for a three that tied the game at 96. With 22.1 seconds left, Lecque broke that tie as he worked to the rim to lay the ball in. Garrett scored with 11.8 seconds left and went to the free throw line for the and-one to pull ahead for good.
Rowsey scored 18 points for Lakeland. The Mad Ants got 15 points and 11 rebounds from Robinson while Lecque and Gray each scored 14.
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