Donald Sloan hit the game winner in the scrimmage.

Just got back from Geneva, Ohio where the Erie BayHawks beat the expansion Canton Charge in an exhibition game at the SPIRE Institute.

First off, the SPIRE Institute is a magnificent facility. Took a tour with the BayHawks there before the scrimmage. Very nice facility.

Now let’s talk hoops.

Erie won, 105-103, but Erie coach Jay Larranaga said, “We got a lot of work to do” afterward.

It’ll be interesting if the BayHawks show improvement in their defense in terms of defending dribble penetration in Saturday’s three-team scrimmage with the Charge and Fort Wayne at Penn State Behrend’s Junker Center.

As far as Wednesday goes, the game was close throughout but three guys came to the front when the game was on the line for the BayHawks.

1. Donald Sloan – Hit the game-winner with 19 seconds left after breaking the defense down with the dribble. This guy can get in the lane, has a nice runner and is automatic from the line.

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Kyle Goldcamp survived the first cuts the Erie BayHawks made Tuesday. Erie waived three players./Photo by Janet B. Kummerer/Erie Times-News

Earlier today, I went to Penn State Behrend’s Junker Center to check out the Erie BayHawks practice.

Here are a few notables:

1.Erie waived three players – guard Adrian Bowie out of Maryland, forward Kayode Ayeni out of St. Francis and power forward Joseph Kennerly II out of Central Oklahoma – today. The odds were against Kennerly III because he was one of four true big men in camp.

Erie traded a second-round pick to Idaho for Jeff Graves, drafted 7-footer Chris Daniels in the first round and Kyle Goldcamp has been with the BayHawks for the last two two seasons.

2. Goldcamp said the biggest difference between Erie coach Jay Larranaga’s system of a season ago and how the New York Knicks play is how the big men run the floor. The former Gannon star said before, bigs ran down the middle of the floor. Now the big men are being asked to run the wings to keep the middle open.

The Knicks and BayHawks are in a hybrid partnership.

3. Goldcamp and Graves, out of Kansas, went at each other again today. At age 30, Graves is more seasoned and has more talent, but what Goldcamp does is make you work. One one play, Goldcamp took Graves baseline, missed the shot, but got the rebound and put it back up. Later in practice, Graves made a beautiful drop-step baseline move, took two power dribbles and scored on a reverse.

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