New Mexico Thunderbirds (14-19) at Erie BayHawks (21-9)
Saturday, 7 p.m., at Tullio Arena
On the air: WFNN-AM 1330; www.nba.com/dleague
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Erie — PF Ivan Johnson (Named to East team for Feb. 19 D-League All-Star Game in Los Angeles. Scored a game-high 37 points in Erie’s 125-100 win against New Mexico on Thursday night.) … SG Blake Ahearn (The all-time leading in free throw shooting percentage in NCAA Division I history at 94.6 percent, Ahearn is 53-of-53 from the line this season. Team’s second leading scorer at 15.6 ppg.) … PF Kyle Goldcamp (The former Gannon star established career highs in points with 19 and blocks with six in Thursday’s win).
New Mexico — SG JR Giddens (Scored 12 points in his debut with the Thunderbirds on Thursday night. Was a first-round pick of the Boston Celtics in the 2008 NBA Draft. Giddens, who started his college career at Kansas, ended it at New Mexico.) … SF Shane Edwards (Named to the West team for the Feb. 19 D-League All-Star game in Los Angeles. Averaging 18 points, Edwards had just seven in Thursday’s loss at Erie) … SG Jamine Peterson (Scored a team-high 22 points Thursday night after scoring just three points in his previous game.)
FAST FACTS
Erie — Won its sixth consecutive game Thursday to establish its longest win streak of the season. The BayHawks are averaging 113.6 points in this current win streak. … SG Reggie Holmes scored six points in his D-League debut. He’s the all-time leading scorer at Morgan State with 2,051 points. … Erie is 10-1 at Tullio Arena. … The BayHawks have already matched last season’s win total.
New Mexico — Lost six of its past seven games. The T-Birds have gone 9-18 since starting the season 5-1 after sweeping a two-game series against Erie at home. … Nik Raivio, 25, is the younger brother of Erie point guard Derek Raivio, who is 26 years old. At 6 feet, 4 inches tall, Nik is two inches taller than Derek. … The T-Birds had 25 turnovers Thursday that lead to 33 points for Erie.
Up next: New Mexico, Sunday, 2 p.m.
— Duane Rankin
