FAYETTEVILLE, N.C., Jan. 6 -- In a game marred by physical play and a bevy of technical fouls, the Fayetteville Patriots built a late five-point lead only to watch Roanoke close with an 11-3 run for a 126-123 win in NBA D-League action at the Crown Coliseum Friday night. The loss drops the Patriots to 3-11, while the Dazzle improve to 7-9. The teams play again at the Crown Coliseum on Saturday night.

Roanoke opened strong, building an early nine-point advantage behind seven first-quarter points from Will Bynum and stretching the lead to 15 in the second period. But the Patriots settled down and put together a 14-1 spurt that left them trailing by only four at the break.

The game stayed close the rest of the way, with Fayetteville appearing to hold a slight edge as it opened up a five-point lead with just under six minutes remaining. The Dazzle hung around, taking advantage of a couple of key turnovers by the Patriots, and hit a crucial string of free throws to pull ahead. Bynum nailed three in a row from the charity stripe in the final seconds, the first of which came courtesy of Fayetteville's seventh technical foul of the game.

In all, there were 10 technical fouls and two flagrant fouls, one that got Roanoke's Peter Ramos ejected in the third. Fayetteville's Butta Johnson was also ejected after drawing his second technical -- the one that put Bynum on the line late in the game.

Anthony Grundy led all scorers with 32. Bynum added 23 and Isiah Victor had 19.

The Patriots were led by newcomer Melvin Sanders, who scored 20 in his first game after joining the team on Tuesday. Erik Daniels added 18.