Flame stay hot at home

ESTERO — Even though they were without their leading rebounder, Dwayne Jones, the Florida Flame proved to be too much for the visiting Albuquerque Thunderbirds to handle Thursday night at Germain Arena as they pulled out a 104-95 win, their eighth straight at home, which is a franchise record.

The same two teams meet again tonight at 7:05.

Bracey Wright led Florida with 25 points and Theron Smith and George Leach each added 18, a season-high for Leach.

Smith pulled down 10 rebounds, tied for the most on the team with Duane Erwin and helped make up for the absence of Jones. Leach grabbed six boards on a night when he was battling the flu.

Thunderbirds guard Tierre Brown also poured in 25 points and 6-foot-11 center Marcus Douthit scored 24 and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds. Their other 6-11 forward, Ken Johnson, chipped in 17 points and six rebounds.

Unlike Tuesday night against Arkansas, the Flame (20-10) came out cold and it was the Thunderbirds who jumped out to an 8-0 lead before Flame head coach Jeff Malone called his first timeout with 9:25 left. Austin Nichols ended the run coming out of the timeout for Florida’s first points of the night.

“We came out a little sluggish and taking a bunch of jumpshots instead of attacking the basket,” Flame coach Jeff Malone said. “I think my guys didn’t want to go in there because of their height, but you’ve got to attack guys, I don’t care how tall you are. We’ve got to be able to get points in the paint and it’s going to be a tough game tomorrow.”

Florida chipped away at the lead and got it down to three and a tap-in by George Leach with about three-and-a-half minutes left in the opening quarter made it a 17-16 ballgame. The teams traded scores after that for a bit before the Thunderbirds (15-13) to carried a 24-19 lead into the second period.

A nice rebound and put-back Florida’s by Duane Erwin late in the second cut the Thunderbirds’ deficit to 33-30, then a three-point play by Theron Smith made it a two-point deficit at 35-33 with just over five minutes left in the half. A running jumper by Bracey Wright just before the three-minute mark tied the game at 39-39.

“We were without our biggest guy (7-foot-1 Andreas Glyniadakis), who was out with a broken finger and didn’t make the trip, but that’s no excuse,” said Thunderbirds head coach Michael Cooper, who won five NBA titles as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. “We stopped doing what our game plan was, to get the ball inside and let their defense dictate, and when we stop doing that and try to hoist up jumpers and try to do it ourselves we’re our own worst enemy.”

Coming out of a timeout, another long-range jumper by Wright put the Flame ahead by two, but a put-back of a missed free throw by Albuquerque’s Marcus Douthit made it 42-41 in favor of Albuquerque. A jumper from the corner by Nichols followed by a basket from Smith increased the Flame lead to 45-42. Barrett made it a 6-0 run with an easy lay-up with under a minute to go but Douthit got his shot to roll in after getting fouled and hit the free throw to make it a two-point game again.

Two free throws by Wright with 26 seconds left and a jumper with 4.0 seconds left by Barrett allowed the Flame to end the half on a 10-3 run and take a 51-45 lead into the locker room.

Florida heated up at the start of the second half and stretched the lead to 10 points at 57-47 with just under 10 minutes left in the third quarter. A fall-away 3-pointer from the left corner by Barrett made it a 62-53 game.

But the T-Birds came back and after Douthit converted a three-point play with 5:30 left, it was a four-point lead for the Flame at 64-60. A nice reverse lay-up by E.J. Rowland extended it back to an 8-point lead for the Flame and they went up by 10 again before Albuquerque trimmed it down to five at 74-69. The period ended with the Flame up 76-69.

“When you play a team this big right here you need a Dwayne Jones, but tonight I thought we battled and I thought our guard play was big,” Malone said. “We put a little pressure on them and went to the zone, and I think we’re going to do that some tomorrow to kind of throw them off balance. Duane, Theron and George all came up big for us on the boards as well.”

Albuquerque stayed within striking distance through the first half of the fourth period, keeping it a five-point game until two free throws by Wright increased the lead back to nine at 88-79 with just under six minutes to go. Another turnover by the Thunderbirds allowed the Flame to try to make it a double-digit lead but Wright’s pull-up jumper as the shot clock was about to expire was short.

The Flame’s Barrett chased down a loose ball rebound at the other end and started the fast break and George Leach was fouled before he could finish his dunk. He hit both foul shots to make it a 90-79 ballgame with 5:01 left. A big 3-pointer by Wright with just under three minutes to go increased the Flame’s lead to 14 points at 94-83 as they found themselves on a 13-4 run.

It was a 15-point game with under two minutes left in the game and the outcome firmly in hand as the Flame hit its free throws down the stretch.

“We practice our free throws all the time,” Wright said. “I missed a couple early but when I needed them I made them.

Now we’ve got to play them again right away, and when you play the same team back-to-back, the team that loses usually does a good job making adjustments, so we’ve got to remember what we did from the second quarter on and contain them on the drive and find a way to contain the big man.”

FLAME: 104 -- THUNDERBIRDS: 95

ALBUQUERQUE (15-13)

Bland 0 0-3 0, Mason 3 1-2 7, Douthit 9 6-7 24, Brooks 1 0-2 2, Tabuse 4 0-0 9, Johnson 5 7-8 17, Brown 10 5-6 25, Cummings 5 1-1 11 Totals 37 20-26 95

FLORIDA (20-10)

Nichols 7 0-0 14, Erwin 2 0-0 4, Wright 7 10-13 25, Smith 7 4-5 18, Barrett 6 4-4 17, Leach 8 2-2 18, Stokes 2 1-2 5, Thomas 0 0-0 0, Rowland 1 0-0 2, Jones 0 0-0 0, Moore 0 0-0 0 Totals 40 22-28 104

Albuquerque: 24 - 21 - 24 - 26 — 95

Florida: 19 - 32 - 25 - 28 — 104

3-point goals — Albuquerque 1-7 (Tabuse); Florida 2-4 (Wright, Barrett).

Total Fouls — Albuquerque 20; Florida 22. Fouled out — Brown (ALB). Technicals — None. Rebounds — Albuquerque 35 (Douthit 11; Florida 41 (Erwin, Smith 10). Assists — Albuquerque 25 (Brown 6); Florida 31 (Barrett 12). A — 858