The Armor moved within a half-game of first place with their seventh straight win.
Springfield Armor guard Preston Knowles comes up with a steal during the first half of Friday night's win over the Iowa Energy.SPRINGFIELD - The Springfield Armor have set sail for points unknown following back-to-back wins over the D-League East-leading Iowa Energy.
The Armor dealt the Energy one of their worst defeats this season, never trailing from opening tip to the closing buzzer in a 122-90 win before 3,110 at the MassMutual Center.
The red-hot Armor have won seven straight and nine of their last 10 in pulling to within a half-game of the Energy in the East. Iowa lost for the third consecutive game and has dropped five of its last seven.
Springfield has now won as many games this season as it did in the previous two years combined, and a victory over Bakersfield on Monday in the team's final game before next weekend's All-Star Game break could put them in first place.
"We just wanted to come out and play the same way we've been playing,'' Armor forward L.D. Williams said. "Everything we're doing is contagious, from defense, we're sharing the ball, we're playing unselfish basketball. The biggest thing is we love playing with each other and that allows us to do what we do.''
Springfield, playing without Lance Hurdle (ankle) and Jamar Brown (ribs), saw every player score in double figures, led by Dennis Horner's double-double with 25 points and 11 rebounds. Jerry Smith added 21, Williams scored 16 and JamesOn Curry had 12 points, seven assists and no turnovers.
"We came out two nights in a row and had over 40 deflections in each game and I just think that shows the attention to defense that our guys are paying,'' Armor coach Bob MacKinnon said. "There's an old saying in coaching that says 'It's not the Xs and Os, it's the Jimmys and Joes,' and Milton Lee (Nets general manager for minor league operations) did a great job of getting us some Jimmys and Joes.''
If Thursday's start for the Armor was fast, Friday's was at the speed of light, needing less than half of the first quarter to open up a double-digit lead on the Energy.
The Armor led 32-22 at halftime and by as much as 21 in the first half before settling for a 63-44 lead at the break.
It was all the same participants from Thursday night's game that saw six technical fouls called and Iowa coach Kevin Young and player Patrick Ewing Jr. ejected.
The chippiness and trash talking that was prevalent Thursday was absent. Young was a little more subdued on the sidelines and Ewing tuned out the crowd that got under his skin the night before.
While Ewing (20 points) played better, leading the Energy with 12 first-half points, the results were pretty much the same as Thursday night. Smith was a force, scoring 19 points in the first half on 6 for 8 shooting, 3 for 5 behind the arc.
The Armor, which has had trouble at times this season maintaining leads, were flawless in the second half, never allowing the Energy to mount any kind of a run. In fact, in the third quarter their largest run was 4-0 as the quarter ended with the Armor sitting on a 31-point lead.
Every Armor player had a rebound and all but center Jeff Foote had an assist. Springfield also set a season-high in foul shooting, making 25 of 27, and was a gaudy 45 for 83 from the floor.
But not everything went right for the Armor.
"At halftime by Diet Coke was flat,'' MacKinnon said with a grin.