The shots weren’t falling. A couple of Red Claws were fighting colds. And Seth Curry, back from a two-game absence for the Erie Bayhawks, couldn’t seem to miss.

The unbeaten record at home certainly seemed in jeopardy Friday night as the Maine Red Claws headed into halftime with a nine-point deficit.

“We just talked about being tougher and outlasting these guys over 48 minutes, getting back to our execution and believing that if you take good shots, they’re going to start falling,” said Maine Coach Scott Morrison, whose club rallied to a 97-84 victory before a crowd of 1,760 at the Portland Expo.

The Red Claws (10-2) are 6-0 at home, unbeaten in December, and the first NBA Development League team to reach double digits in victories.

Having trailed Erie (5-7) by as many as 13 points in the first half, the Claws came out strong in the third quarter to take a 70-68 lead. Andre Stringer came off the bench to clamp down on Curry, who finished with 25 points but was held to only two in the fourth quarter.

It was 77-77 with nine minutes left. That’s when Chris Babb, who had missed seven of his first eight 3-point attempts, converted a tough shot from underneath while being knocked to the floor (no foul called), then made a 3-pointer following a block by Asauhn Dixon-Tatum to give Maine a five-point cushion.

Advertisement

“That was a physical game,” said Babb, who finished with 20 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. “You have those games sometimes where the refs kind of let you play. So we adjusted in the second half. We got into guys defensively. We were tougher on rebounds. We took it up to another level and I think they got tired. They ran out of gas.”

The Red Claws closed out the game on a 20-6 run as Babb buried another 3-pointer in the final two minutes. Point guard Tim Frazier, fighting off a cold, scored three consecutive baskets and handed out 11 assists.

Omari Johnson finished with 23 points. Stringer made all three of his 3-point shots in the third quarter and finished with 13 points. Center Ralph Sampson III added 12 points and blocked two shots.

“It was a good team effort,” Morrison said. “All of our wins are good team wins where we share the ball and share the scoring and rotate and work together on defense. If we keep doing that, we can be in any game.”

Babb said he spoke with Morrison before the season about keeping an even shooting keel and not letting early failures bother him.

“There’s going to be games where shots rattle in and out, or they just don’t fall,” Babb said. “The biggest thing for me is just staying confident. The guys kept finding me. Timmy and Andre did a good job making extra passes and getting into the paint. They kept finding me and I just kept letting it fly. They ended up falling late in the game when we needed them.”

Curry, the younger brother of Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, is considered one of the top prospects in the D-League. He missed two games because of a hip injury.

“Obviously, he’s one of the more talented scorers in the league, as is (Erie guard Drew) Crawford,” Morrison said. “I thought Chris Babb did a great job on both guys. I thought (Stringer) did an excellent job on Curry, just being in his space and being a pest, without fouling him. And I thought (Frazier) did a good job chasing Curry around and making him work as well. So that was kind of our plan, to keep fresh legs on him as much as possible.”


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.