Explosion short-circuits Energy’s bid for title

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By Chris O’leary

July 3, 2009

Explosion 143 Energy 131

(Snohomish County advances to IBL semifinal)

The Edmonton Energy’s storybook season took a nightmarish turn on Thursday night in 143-131 loss to the Snohomish County Explosion.

The International Basketball League’s top team in 2009, the Energy fell to an Explosion team that they downed convincingly in a pair of games in May.

IBL leading scorer Devon Greene’s 52 points sunk Edmonton while Snohomish forward Richard Ford added 30 points and 13 rebounds.

Steve Sir led the Energy with 24 points and 11 rebounds while Will Funn dished 22 assists from the point.

"Greene was fantastic both halves. We tried a variety of things and we had no answer at all. He finished on contact, hit threes, pull ups, he just did it all. He was phenomenal," said Energy coach Paul Sir.

Although it was a quarter-final playoff game, Explosion player/ coach Chris Weakly said before the game that this matchup would essentially determine who would win the league crown. While the defending IBL-champion Bellingham Slam would disagree, both the Explosion and the Energy gave the sparse crowd in attendance a championship-game atmosphere.

Using their home court to their advantage, the Explosion came out with an emotional start to the game, jumping out to an 11-4 lead behind the hot shooting of Greene.

Weakly was also hot from downtown, connecting on three three-pointers in the first quarter alone. He also executed a rare four-point play.

Funn led Edmonton’s charge back into the game. The point guard ran the break with ease, finding teammates in the lane--an alley-oop toss to Andrew Parker being the early highlight of the night--as he dished out 15 assists in the first half, giving Edmonton its first of many short-lived leads.

A tight first half ended with Edmonton trailing 75-74.

Whenever Edmonton threatened to surge ahead, Greene would quell the Energy’s push with a drive or a shot from deep. He keyed a 20-6 Snohomish run in the third quarter to help the Explosion take a 116-101 lead into the fourth quarter.

When Greene wasn’t doing the damage for Snohomish, backup guard Jason Hicks (30 points) played his part. Hicks exposed Edmonton off the dribble, sinking floaters when contested and connecting on numerous three-pointers when the defence sagged on him.

"That’s the first team we’ve played all season that played both halves in the same game. They hit shots the whole game. In this league, good offence always beats good defence," said Paul Sir.

Snohomish advances to the league semifinal today against the Oregon Waves. On the other side of the bracket, Bellingham will play the Los Angeles Lightning. The league championship will be determined on July 23.