Dazzle Finds Basket and Victory in NBDL Opener

ROANOKE, Va., Nov. 18, 2001 – The Roanoke Dazzle, after struggling with its shooting in the preseason, found the basket and victory in its National Basketball Development League opener.

The Dazzle hit 55.8 percent of its field-goal attempts, dominated the backboards with its twin 7-footers, and overcame a tough ball-handling night for a 73-65 over the Mobile Revelers at the Roanoke Civic Center. In going 0-2 in the NBDL preseason, Roanoke hit only 33.1 percent of its shots.

An opening night crowd of 2,857 watched the Dazzle (1-0) take an early lead, and Mobile (1-1) struggled inside against Roanoke’s big man, 7-foot-2 Thomas Hamilton and 7-foot Lorenzo Coleman. Hamilton finished with a game-high 14 rebounds to go with nine points, while Coleman had 15 points.

“The key is getting the ball down into the big ones,” Roanoke coach Kent Davison said. “Our offense is going best when it’s inside out. We’re going to send everything through them, and have them look to kick it out for some open shots, too.

“We need to do a better job on our defensive boards than we did (still had 28 rebounds, to Mobile’s 16 offensive). Our big guys are starting to get into better shape, and you’re going to see them do even better. When they’re playing like they can, it creates so many problems. I’m sure Mobile couldn’t practice against two 7-footers, so when you get them in the game, it’s something they haven’t dealt with.”

Roanoke led 40-29 at the half, and was shooting 64.0 percent (16-of-25). The Dazzle was wasting possessions, too, with 14 turnovers. The Revelers were struggling, hitting only 29.3 percent at the break. Roanoke got 11 a combined 11 points off the bench from skip Youngblood, Ricky Moore and JaRon Rush.

Mobile shot 34.2 percent for the game, and starting guards Rashad Phillips and Isaac Fontaine were a combined 11-of-35. The Revelers stayed in the game because they committed only 10 turnovers. Jamario Moon had a game-high 218 points for Mobile.

“I was very disappointed in the way we played overall,” said Mobile coach Sam Vincent. “I thought Roanoke got too many transition baskets. We really only had one guy going to the offensive boards, and time and time again we didn’t get back and their guys got easy baskets.

“In our first game, we did a much better job of getting back defensively, and we shut down the fast break opportunities for Fayetteville. I don’t think Fayetteville had the inside power Roanoke does. They’ve got two big guys. They’ve got two big guys down there that just overpowered us.”

The Revelers had few answers for Roanoke’s big men. Besides Hamilton and Coleman, the 6-8 Youngblood had 11 points, and point guard Danny Earl’s tight defense on Phillips was crucial in Roanoke’s play.

“I just tried to work hard on Phillips, and stick with his first step,” Earl said. “He’s going to take his shots, but you have to mak them as difficult for him as you can. For us, it was mostly about the fact we’re starting to become more comfortable out there with one another. We also made a few more shots tonight.”

Fontaine said, “When you’re shooting dunks and layups it’s easy to shoot a high percentage. We were basically giving them breakaway layups all night. They are big and take up a lot of space in the lane, but it wasn’t like they were blocking shots all night. We just didn’t play well and our transition defense wasn’t good.”

“It’s always great to finally get out there and play an organized game,” said Roanoke’s Hamilton. “The difference for us from our preseason was that Coach Davison has practiced us hard, and we watched a lot of tape of what we were doing and not doing. We moved the ball much better, and we played much better team defense, too. We shot the ball well, but where we won it was defensively.”