Washington 76, Cleveland 71

Las Vegas, July 14 -- The Washington Wizards snapped their seven-game summer-league losing streak in Las Vegas as they downed the Cleveland Cavaliers, 76-71.

The Wizards lost their final game of the 2005 summer league, went 0-5 in the 2006 and had lost their first three of this 2007 campaign.

“It was a great feeling,” Wizards rookie Nick Young said of the win. “It hurts losing in front of all these people and your family.”

It was a tightly contested battle that featured 12 ties and 15 lead changes. Washington was trailing 70-67 when Oleksiy Pecherov nailed a 3-pointer from the corner to knot the game at 70.

“I knew when he (Pecherov) hit it we had a chance,” Young said. “It got the bench going, it was a big shot for us.”

After a Daniel Gibson missed 3-point attempt, Young scored the next four Wizards points to give them a lead that they never relinquished.

Young finished with a game-high 18 points, three rebounds, an assist and two blocks in 25 minutes. In four games this summer, the 2007 first round draft pick is averaging a team-high 15.8 points in 27.5 minutes.

Pecherov had14 points (4-9 FG) and nine rebounds in 29 minutes.

On the other side, Gibson netted a team-high 16 points while collecting six rebounds, three assists and two blocks in 34 minutes.

Cleveland finished the 2007 NBA Summer League with a record of 2-3 while Washington’s 1-3 with one contest remaining tomorrow versus the Milwaukee Bucks.