The Fort Wayne Mad Ants, the Pacers' G League affiliate, have dropped four straight games, including three losses in the last week. Fort Wayne is now 19-21 on the season and in third place in the Central Division, 2.5 games out of first.
The Mad Ants fell on the road to the division leaders, the Windy City Bulls (Chicago's affiliate), on Feb. 22, 119-112. The game featured dueling triple-doubles, as Mad Ants rookie Rob Gray tallied 14 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists, while former Mad Ant Walter Lemon Jr. racked up 21 points, 10 boards, and 13 assists for the Bulls.
Omari Johnson, who participated in Pacers training camp last fall, led Fort Wayne with 28 points on 10-of-19 shooting (5-of-10 from 3-point range). Stephan Hicks and Ike Nwamu added 19 points apiece in the loss.
The next night, the Mad Ants built a 22-point halftime lead over the Canton Charge (Cleveland's affiliate), but went cold in the second half. Canton outscored Fort Wayne 25-12 in the fourth quarter, winning at the buzzer, 100-99.
The two teams traded the lead four times in the final minute. Two-way guard Davon Reed's putback gave the Mad Ants a 99-98 lead with 11.6 seconds remaining, but Jaron Blossomgame tipped in Scoochie Smith's miss on the other end to lift the Charge to victory.
Gray and Johnson led Fort Wayne with 28 points each. Gray also tallied nine rebounds and five assists, while Johnson had seven boards and went 8-for-15 from 3-point range.
Hicks added 12 points and five rebounds, while Nwamu had 11 points and four boards. Reed had just five points on 2-of-13 shooting, but did manage to tally 10 rebounds, three assists, and three steals.
The Mad Ants and Charge met again on Tuesday night in Canton, but the result was the same, as the Charge picked up a 122-115 victory. Pacers guard Edmond Sumner joined the Mad Ants on assignment for that contest and was excellent in the loss, scoring 34 points on 13-of-23 shooting (3-of-7 from 3-point range) to go along with four rebounds, seven assists, and two steals.
Hicks added 22 points and 12 rebounds in the loss. Johnson scored 19 points, while Reed finished with 17 points, eight rebounds, three assists, and two steals.
The Mad Ants return to action on Friday night at the Wisconsin Herd (Milwaukee's affiliate) at 8:00 PM ET. Fort Wayne will continue a four-game trip next week, with visits to the Delaware Blue Coats (Philadelphia's affiliate) on Monday and the Long Island Nets (Brooklyn's affiliate) on Wednesday.
Stay tuned to Pacers.com for continued updates on the Mad Ants, and make sure to check out Pacers.com/MadAntsTV » to watch select Mad Ants games for free online.