Armor dish out season-high 30 assists in win over Legends.
Armor forward L.D. Williams glides in for one of his two first-half dunks in Thursday's win over the Texas Legends.SPRINGFIELD - Offensively, it doesn't get much better than this.
The Springfield Armor set a season-high with assists and tied a season-high for 3-pointers as they routed the Texas Legends 114-98 before 1,815 Thursday night at the MassMutual Center.
The win pushes the Armor three games over .500 at 16-13. They've won three straight and five of their last six games, and will win a boatload of games if they continue to play like this.
Springfield dished out 30 assists, topping the old season-high by six. It also had a season-low for turnovers with 8. At halftime the assist-to-turnover ratio was 16-1.
"It was terrific, the way the ball moved tonight was terrific,'' Armor coach Bob MacKinnon said. "Six guys in double figures, one guy two off. The way we're moving the ball right now is really fun to watch. And we decided we're going to take some pride in getting stops and that was a big key as well.''
Springfield grabbed the lead at 15-13 on a Jeff Foote (15 points) hook shot and never gave it up. Every Armor player scored, had an assist and had a rebound in this total team effort.
"This is what we picture when we play team ball,'' Armor guard Lance Hurdle said. "Everybody's involved, everybody's playing hard and scoring the basketball, and more importantly playing D.''
Dennis Horner and L.D. Williams had double-doubles, Horner scoring 24 with 11 rebounds and Williams 14 with 13 rebounds. JamesOn Curry had 21, including four of the 14 3-pointers which ties a season-high for the Armor.
Jerry Smith, the reigning D-League performer of the week, had 17 points and 8 assists and Preston Knowles scored 11 off the bench.
The Armor nearly squandered a big first-half advantage, allowing a 14-point lead to be trimmed as close as five before a grand finish led by Williams restored the double-digit edge at halftime.
Springfield was solid on the offensive end, shooting 49 percent and getting 11 offensive rebounds while turning the ball over just once in the first half.
The biggest flaw was the transition defense, giving up too many easy baskets as the Legends beat the Armor down the court.
Still, the first half was about the success of the Springfield offense. It had 16 assists to the one turnover, with every player except one getting an assist. Curry score 15 points and Horner 14.
But an 8-0 run by the Legends turned a 14-point lead to five. Horner's reverse and a dunk by Williams made the lead nine, but Mathew Rogers made two free throws and Booker Woodfox hit a jumper to trim the lead once again.
Springfield answered, Curry hitting a deep 3-pointer as the shotclock ran out. Williams had another steal and one-handed dunk. After Alando Tucker made one of two foul shots, Williams beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer to send the Armor to the locker room with their double-digit lead restored.
It just got better and better for the Armor in the third quarter as they pulled ahead by 17 with a whole lot more of what was working in the first half. Williams, who had 10 rebounds in the first quarter, had a double-double before the third quarter was over.
All five starters reached double figures in scoring by the end of the third, the fourth quarter just a matter of maintaining the lead and seeing how many season high marks the Armor could reach before the fourth quarter ended.