Former BayHawk Maureece Rice will make his Sioux Falls' debut against his former team Friday night at Tullio Arena.

Sioux Falls Skyforce (2-12) at Erie BayHawks (11-6)

Friday, 7 p.m., Tullio Arena.
▀  On the air: WFNN-AM 1330; www.nba.com/dleague/

Players to watch
▀  Erie — PF Ivan Johnson (Leads team in scoring at 17.1 points a game. Johnson is the only player on the team to start every game the BayHawks have played this season. … C Solomon Alabi (A rookie with the Toronto Raptors, Alabi is making his second trip to the D-League. In his first run with the BayHawks, Alabi averaged 8.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and three blocks in seven starts. … SG Blake Ahearn (Had a season-high 16 points in his third game with Erie after being reacquired by them. He averaged 25.7 points in 13 games with the BayHawks last season).

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Solomon Alabi's shot blocking ability came to the front for Erie on Friday night.

In their D-League debuts, Toronto Raptors rookie center Solomon Alabi and Cleveland Cavaliers rookie forward Christian Eyenga were pretty solid Friday night.

They started and contributed to Erie’s 109-71 win against the Springfield Armor. Alabi had 13 points, seven rebounds and seven blocks while Eyenga had 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field.

Let’s look a little deeper than the numbers.

Alabi. At 7-foot-1, he’s going to block shots, but he did his job. At the same time, he didn’t finish as well around the basket on a consistent basis. Alabi even admitted he could  have gotten more than seven boards, but he played hard, had fun and you could see he has talent.

Eyenga. Very athletic. Had a block in which he just came out of nowhere and swatted the ball out of bounds and his one-handed dunk l0oked effortless as he took off outside the lane to throw it down. However, he admitted his defense could have been better and he even drew a technical foul.

The key for both guys is to see how they’ll play in a back-to-back as Erie and Springfield meet Saturday night at 7 at Tullio Arena.

Will they have the same energy? Will one or the other or both raise their level of play? In the case of Alabi, Springfield wanted to go at him to get him in foul trouble, but Vernon Goodrich got in foul trouble early.

If Goodrich can stay on the floor, he may make Alabi work. As for Eyenga, I’d like to see Erie put him on Scottie Reynolds just to see if he can stay in front of a shorter, quicker guard. Reynolds had 21 last night.

Toronto 7-foot-1 rookie center Solomon Alabi has played in just one game for the Raptors this season.

The guy is certainly thin, but Solomon Alabi showed some athleticism and quickness in his first practice with the Erie BayHawks earlier this afternoon at Gannon University’s Hammermill Center.

The Toronto Raptors sent Alabi, 22, down to play for the BayHawks, who open the season Friday night against the Springfield Armor at Tullio Arena.

Now granted it was just drills and he wasn’t going up against anyone in a 5-on-5 situation, but Alabi showed some explosiveness on one particular drill in which the player picks the ball off the ground, take a dribble and finishes at the rim.

Now Alabi will have a tough act to follow in terms of players from Erie’s NBA affiliates who have been sent down to play for the BayHawks in the previous two seasons.

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While North Carolina sophomore power forward Ed Davis is expected to play right away for the Toronto Raptors, 7-footer Solomon Alabi may see action with the Erie BayHawks in the D-League.

 The Raptors, an NBA affiliate of the BayHawks, acquired Alabi in a trade with the Dallas Mavericks, who picked Alabi in the second round with the 50th overall pick. NBA teams can send down their first or seecond-year players up to three times in a season.