MOTOR CITY CRUISE STUN FORT WAYNE MAD ANTS WITH A LATE THREE-POINT SHOT

FORT WAYNE – The Motor City Cruise continued their road trip today, taking on the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. Motor City won today’s battle over Fort Wayne, with a score of 119-116.

The Cruise welcomed back their two-way players, Buddy Boeheim, and Jared Rhoden prior to today’s game. This was their first game back since February 27 before they were transferred to the Detroit Pistons.

The Cruise led 27-22 to end the first quarter. Along with going on a 12-2 run late in the first, Buddy Boeheim shot 2-4 beyond the arc in the first quarter alone. The Mad Ants battled back in the second quarter to lead 53-49. Fort Wayne shot 52% from the floor in the second quarter alone and held Motor City to just 43.5% from the field to close out the first half.

With a 13-2 run for Fort Wayne, the Mad Ants led 87-81 to end the third. However, the Cruise would battle back in the fourth quarter. Trailing by six to begin the fourth, the Cruise took first lead of the of the second half with 3:24 to go in regulation. From there, there were two more ties and two lead changes. The last tie came with 7.8 seconds to go in regulation, when Trevelin Queen nailed an off balance three-point shot. Then, with 0.5 seconds left, Jaylen Johnson hit a clutch three to give the Cruise the win.

With today’s win, Jaylen Johnson finished the game as Motor City’s leading scorer. He scored 23 points after shooting 7-11 from the floor (5-6 beyond the arc). Keifer Sykes followed up with 21 points. Sykes shot 9-16 from the floor. Sykes also tallied eight assists. Lastly, David Nwaba secured a double-double after scoring 16 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.

For Fort Wayne, Trevelin Queen shot 10-19 to score 29 points. Jermaine Samuels Jr. shot a perfect 11-11 from the court to follow up with 26 points. Justin Anderson dropped 21 points to be the third Mad Ant to score 20 or more points in today’s contest.

The Motor City Cruise improved to 13-14 and Fort Wayne Mad Ants fell to 13-13. With a loss by the Lakeland Magic (prior to the end of this game), the Cruise are now 1.5 games behind the lowest playoff seed (prior to tonight’s games), with five games remaining of the 2022-23 regular season. The Cruise will finish their series with the Mad Ants on Saturday, March 11. Tip-off is slated for 7:00pm EST. The game can be seen at https://gleague.nba.com/.