Mike Gansey averaged 18.4 poinst and 8.2 boards in 27 games with Erie this season.

4:45 a.m. Wednesday.

That’s what time Erie BayHawks guard Mike Gansey’s first of two plane fights exits the runway en route to China as he will play with fellow D-League players and former NBA stars Robert Horry and Chris Mullin, a member of the 1992 Dream Team that won gold in the 1992 Summer Olympics, in two charity basketball games.

Before he headed out,  Gansey did a lengthy phone interview with me about China, the BayHawks and if his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, were going to win an NBA title this season.

From nearby Olmsted Falls, Ohio, Gansey, as expected, picked the Cavaliers to win it all. Here’s what else he had to say Tuesday afternoon.

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Rob Kurz (shooting) and Alade Aminu were traded for each other on draft day. Both played in the All-Star game.

Erie made its third trade this season in shipping D-League All-Star rookie power forward Alade Aminu to Bakersfield for shooting guard Blake Ahearn, a 2009 league All-Star.

Here’s a look at how players in the two previous trades have fared this season.

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The Springfield Armor have had enough of Mike Gansey.

Last Wednesday, Gansey made two free throws with 5.2 seconds left to beat the Armor in Erie, 95-94. He finished with a game-high 25 points after missing five games with a bruised calf.

Today, he hit the game-winning basket with eight seconds left as the BayHawks (12-16) won, 93-91, at Springfield (5-19). Once again, Gansey was the high-point man with 27 points. He played all 48 minutes for the second straight game in a back-to-back situation.

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The Erie BayHawks folded at the end.

They were up 76-73 with two minutes and 42 seconds left in the game after power forward Alade Aminu scored three straight baskets in the paint area.

The BayHawks didn’t score again until Mike Gansey made a lay up with three seconds left as they lost 82-78 to the expansion Red Claws, who are 5-0 against them.

What happened in between?

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No. 6 it is.

Jackie Manuel’s lob dunk from a Cliff Clinkscales pass that made the D-League Top 10 dunks posted Jan. 25 on its web site. The BayHawk tandem pulled it off against the For Wayne Mad Ants earlier this month.

Pretty cool.

Here's Snow (in the yellow shirt) at one of Erie's open tryouts in Philadelphia before the 2008-09 season.

The Erie BayHawks picked up a familiar face to help fill their void at point guard for tonight’s 7:30 p.m. game at Maine: Tychicus “Tic” Snow.

Most people in Erie don’t know him, but Snow has tried out for the BayHawks all six times they’ve had open tryouts since becoming an D-League franchise.

Erie coach John Treloar got him out of the D-League player pool. The Manassas, Va., native was one of the 200 prospects available in this season’s draft, but went undrafted.

He averaged 6.5 points and 2.3 assists in his last seasonat at Mississippi Valley State in 2006-07, but I remember him when he participated in the open tryouts in Erie at Family First last November. Snow is listed at 5-foot-7, 165 pounds but he’s very muscular.

“He’s like Spud Webb,” Virginia Fastbreak coach Chris Brown said. “He’s very, very physical.”

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“That’s the fight that I have right now. I mean, even though I’m hurt and we a man down already so. We’ve got to do anything to get a win. If they would have had to cut it off, I was playing tonight. We just needed a win bad.”

Clinkscales is all heart for Erie.

You’ve got to love his heart.

There he was. Cliff Clinkscales. The pride of Jamacia Queens, N.Y.

He had just knocked down a jump shot in the second half of Erie’s 95-94 win against Springfield and landed on an Armor defender.

Badly twisting his right ankle, Clinkscales got up, got back on defense and kept playing until the whistle blew. He limped off the court and later returned to the game.

He ended the game limping onto the court to congratulate Jackie Manuel for his defensive stop on Morris Almond to seal the game for Erie, but Clinkscales days’ may be numbered in Erie.

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After watching the Erie BayHawks lose to Rio Grande Valley, 110-88, Friday night without their rookie point guard Cedric Jackson, I came up with a few conclusions.

Now Jackson received an NBA call up with the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are an NBA affiliate of the BayHawks. This is the first time the Cavs have plucked a player from Erie as they are an NBA affiliate of the BayHawks.



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Clinkscales will look to bounce back today.

It was painful to watch Saturday night.

Seeing Cliff Clinkscales miss four key free throws in the fourth quarter of Erie’s 89-87 loss to Fort Wayne made you cringe or shout out in frustration as many fans did when he misfired.

After the misses, veteran teammate Jackie Manuel came up to him and tried to loosen him up with some words of encouragement during the game, but after the game, Clinkscales sat in the locker room with his head down.

However, he stood strong in answering questions about the missed free throws and took responsibility for the loss. That is not an easy thing to do and Cliff did so with his chin up. You’ve got to respect that.

So today, I look for him to bounce back and have a solid game against Fort Wayne. The guy is from Jamacia Queens, N.Y., so he’s not going to back down from a challenge, especially one that is within.

The  Erie BayHawks have been changing their line-up more than a runway model.

Hard to say if this current starting unit will work against Iowa, but it helped them score 34 points in the first quarter in Erie’s win at Springfield to snap a five-game winning streak. Now the Armor had only won one game, but Erie had just two victories, so at this point, this is a decent win for the BayHawks.

There were four key moves in this:

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