Bismarck, North Dakota - News

The Dakota Wizards could have found a lot of reasons to lose Wednesday night's game with Yakima, but instead they found a way to win, downing the Sun Kings 119-116.

Sean Lampley turned in his best game as a Wizard with 33 points and Melvin Sanders poured in 31. Bryant Notree scored 21 -- including two of the biggest buckets of the night -- as Dakota claimed five of seven quarter points.

The win was especially sweet for the Wizards because they were still fuming over curiously one-sided suspensions handed out by the CBA for an incident during Monday night's game between the two clubs.

"In life, when you have an excuse, you usually go toward that," said assistant coach Brian Walsh, who ran the club on Wednesday. "It's rare that you don't, and you don't rely on that as an excuse to lose. We could have blamed it on the powers that be, but we didn't. I'm proud to be around these guys. They're tough guys."

Wizards head coach Casey Owens was suspended from Wednesday's game for "unsportsmanlike conduct and violating league policies on objectionable language." Dakota players Lampley, Jeff Brandt, Shawn Daniels, Derrick Davis and Larry Reid were given one game each for "leaving the vicinity of the bench during an altercation" despite the fact that there wasn't much of an altercation. Brandt and Daniels served their suspensions Wednesday, Lampley will serve his on Friday, and Reid will serve his on Sunday. Davis was released by the Wizards on Wednesday.

Meanwhile Yakima's only punishment was a one-game suspension of Cliff Hawkins. That rankled the Wizards, because Hawkins instigated the incident by flipping off Owens. More disturbing, Hawkins also forcibly brushed off referee Mark Riggs when the official tried to calm him down, yet he received the same sentence as each of the Wizards who merely stepped onto the court.

"I was absolutely shocked by the suspension," said Owens, who returned to the Civic Center after the final buzzer.

Yet the Sun Kings (14-27) had at least as much excuse to wallow on Wednesday as the Wizards. Yakima made the journey to Bismarck with only eight players, and losing Hawkins took their roster down to seven. Valuable reserve forward Carlos Daniel injured his ankle in the first quarter, ending his night. Then in the third quarter starter Derek Hood suffered what appeared to be a rib injury and was taken out on a stretcher. That left Yakima with just five players to finish the last 17 minutes of the game.

As a result the Sun Kings had to leave in Noel Felix after he picked up his sixth foul. Although the CBA has no foul out rule, the Wizards picked up extra free throws when Felix was called for his seventh and eighth fouls, which may have been a factor in the outcome of the game.

The Wizards fell behind 15-5 early on, but cut the gap to 27-26 by the end of the first quarter. By halftime they had moved in front, clinging to a 56-55 edge at intermission.

Without point guard Wayne Turner -- who hurt his hamstring early and did not return -- the Wizards struggled offensively. Meanwhile Andre McCollum, who led Yakima with 32 points, was getting to the line time and again, helping the Sun Kings to an 88-83 lead after three quarters.

The game see-sawed back and forth for the final 12 minutes. Notree put the Wizards on top, 112-111, with a tough turnaround jumper from the elbow with 1:22 to go. Yakima's Bakari Hendrix (26 points) responded with a baseline jumper, only to have Sanders bury a 3-pointer for Dakota.

The Sun Kings nearly frittered away the next possession, but Hendrix bailed them out. The 6-8, 255-pounder with the soft outside touch connected on a 3-pointer with 20.5 seconds remaining, giving Yakima a 116-115 edge.

Again the Wizards turned to Notree. The veteran guard knifed through the lane and banked a left-hander off the glass with 6.9 seconds left.

Yakima had a chance to regain the lead, only to have Felix throw behind a cutter and toss the ball out of bounds. Sanders hit two free throws to ice the win.

* NOTES: The Wizards reacquired Alex Sanders on Wednesday. Sanders had left the team earlier in the season, in a situation that Owens described as going AWOL. "We worked it out," Owens said. "It was some simple miscommunication on my part and his part."

Yakima 27 28 33 28 -- 116

Wizards 26 30 27 36 -- 119

YAKIMA (116): Donnell Knight 2-9 1-1 5, Noel Felix 10-19 8-8 28, Derek Hood 4-7 1-2 9, Andre McCollum 9-18 12-12 32, Jeryl Sasser 4-14 5-10 14, Bakari Hendrix 12-16 0-3 26, Carlos Daniel 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 42-86 27-36 116.

WIZARDS (119): Chad Prewitt 5-12 0-0 12, Bobby Lazor 4-11 2-4 12, Wayne Turner 0-1 0-0 0, Melvin Sanders 11-19 6-6 31, Larry Reid 3-5 0-0 6, Sean Lampley 11-19 11-12 33, Alex Sanders 2-4 0-0 4. Totals 45-89 22-28 119.

3-pointers: Yakima 5-14 (Hendrix 2-3, McCollum 2-5, Sasser 1-6), Wizards 7-19 (Sanders 3-7, Lazor 2-5, Prewitt 2-6, Notree 0-1). Rebounds: Yakima 47 (Hood 14), Wizards 48 (A. Sanders 9). Fouls: Yakima 23, Wizards 24. Assists: Yakima 17 (Sasser 8), Wizards 22 (Notree 6). Turnovers: Yakima 14, Wizards 14. Blocked shots: Yakima 3 (Felix 2), Wizards 2 (A. Sanders 2). Steals: Yakima 7 (Hood 2, Sasser 2), Wizards 10 (M. Sanders 3).

A: 2,529.

Records: Yakima 14-27, Wizards 26-13.

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