ALBANY – Playing their first game in 12 days, the Albany Patroons got off to a fast start and never trailed in Thursday’s 102-89 victory over the Montreal Tundra in a The Basketball League game at Washington Avenue Armory.
Patroons guard Trevis Wyche scored 29 points, including five 3-pointers, to lead all scorers. Albany raced to leads of 9-0 and 17-2 in the opening four minutes.
The Patroons, playing their first game since the All-Star break, improved to 10-2. They hadn’t played since a surprising home loss to previously winless Academie Alma on April 1.
“I was happy with the start of the game,” Albany head coach Derrick Rowland said. “We came out and blitzed (Montreal) early. I knew we had to do that. After that last game we had here, we had to come out and regain our motivation and our momentum.”
Marcus Merchant and Mustapha Traore added 14 points each for the Patroons. Albany’s James Currington and Josue Salaam chipped in with 12 points apiece.
Trailing by 24 in the third quarter, Montreal (3-7) rallied within 81-73 with 49 seconds remaining in the quarter. But Albany answered with a 9-0 run, including back-to-back 3-pointers by Salaam, to regain control at 90-73 with 11:12 to play.
“Everybody seemed excited to come back (from the break),” Traore said. “We got that basketball atmosphere going … You could see the momentum swing. We didn’t hit a lot of 3s tonight (9 of 29), but we played together as a team. We moved the ball, nobody was playing selfish, and I think that was the biggest thing for tonight.”
The Patroons had 22 assists, led by Wyche’s six and Shadell Millinghaus’ five.
Montreal’s Dane Miller Jr. scored 25 points and former University at Albany guard Ahmad Clark, released by the Patroons in training camp, added 15 points for the Tundra. Clark was a UAlbany…
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