Final Score: Raptors 905 119, Memphis Hustle 117 | Box Score
Assignees: Tyrell Terry (Memphis Hustle/Dallas Mavericks)
With three seconds remaining in the game and the 905 trailing by one point, Henry Ellenson caught an inbounds pass just inside the 3-point line and fired up a 16-foot jumper. A flying Ahmad Caver contested the shot, but the bucket dropped and so did Ellenson, giving the team the lead off the basket plus a foul.
Ellenson converted on the free throw, and his late-game shooting heroics helped Raptors 905 take a 119-117 win over the Memphis Hustle in a sluggish back-and-forth fourth quarter battle putting the 905 back into the win column with a 5-3 record.
Ellenson led the 905 with 27 points, 11 rebounds, and 6 for 8 shooting from the perimeter, while Nik Stauskas also scored 27 points along with 7 assists and 7 rebounds.
The game-winner comes one day after Raptors 905 were on the other end of another thriller-ending, falling short in double-overtime yesterday to Fort Wayne.
Bennie Boatwright and Tyrell Terry scored team-highs of 26 points each for the Hustle, and Caver added 24 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists in the losing effort.
Raptors 905 were without Malachi Flynn (with parent club Raptors) and Jalen Harris (dislocated left finger) tonight, but that quickly proved to not have affected much offensively for the team. The 905 came out firing in the opening frame, as Stauskas and Gary Payton II got off to a hot start combining for 18 of the 905’s 37 first-quarter points.
The 905 saw its largest lead of the game early in the second quarter at 43-26 after a Dewan Hernandez layup, but the advantage slowly dwindled and seesawed between double and single-digits throughout most of the quarter with both teams exchanging runs. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Boatright would eventually cut the deficit to 58-51 for Memphis with 3:41 remaining in the half, forcing Patrick Mutombo to call a timeout.
Despite giving up 39 points in the second quarter, Raptors 905 headed into the locker room with a 72-63 lead with five players already in double-digit scoring. Boatwright, who played for USC and went undrafted in 2019, would finish the first half with 17 points on five of nine shooting from distance.
Boatwright opened the final frame by converting on a layup, giving the Hustle its first lead of the game since the opening minutes of the night at 94-93. The fourth quarter saw both teams exchange leads eight times, and Terry, the Dallas Mavericks assignee, dropped in a layup off of a David Stockton pass to put the Hustle up 111-109 with 2:43 left in the game.
Moments later, Payton II, who received his first start of the season tonight, converted on back-to-back possessions to help the 905 regain the lead once again. On the following possession, Payton II forced a turnover from Shaq Buchanan leading to a Stauskas triple to extend the score to 116-111.
But Terry and Boatright would hit two straight three-pointers with 32 and 4 seconds left in the game, putting Memphis back on top as the game approached its final possessions.
The Hustle still had an opportunity to win the game after Ellenson’s and-1 conversion with over one second remaining, but an aggressive defensive pursuit by Matt Mooney as Stockton attempted to run the final play forced a Hustle turnover as the clock ran out.
Raptors 905 now have seven games remaining as the team heads towards the halfway mark of the season and inches closer to the eight-team single-elimination playoffs, with their next game taking place on Wednesday at 7:00PM against the Delaware Blue Coats.
Raptors 905 Notes:
- Gary Payton II got his first start of the season for the 905 tonight with Jalen Harris out with a left dislocated finger and scored 18 points on 8/15 shooting. Payton II didn’t fill up the stat sheet as he has in a handful of games thus far and seemed to be having one of his poorer performances of the season (four turnovers, four fouls, and 1-5 from the perimeter), but he made a few clutch plays in consecutive possessions as the game closed out tonight, including a layup, a putback and a steal, leading to a seven point swing for the 905
- This was Henry Ellenson’s second straight big night in back-to-back close games. Ellenson dropped 26 points and 12 rebounds in yesterday’s double-overtime loss, and put up 27 and 12 tonight on 10/16 shooting
- Dewan Hernandez gave the 905 a solid boost tonight going for 4 for 4 from the floor to finish the game with nine points. His stat line this evening certainly doesn’t stand out, but Hernandez made a couple of plays during the game in some important moments when the momentum seemed to be shifting towards the Hustle, including drilling a corner 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter to help the team regain the lead following a 12-2 Memphis run. Despite being cut by the Raptors and now coming off the bench for the 905, Hernandez is the one veteran piece remaining for the club and it will be interesting to see how he will continue to impact the team heading towards the playoffs
