If there is a weakness in this year's Mad Ants team, it might have been revealed in their 111-100 loss to Iowa on Tuesday at Memorial Coliseum. By falling into a 24-point hole, and going nearly nine minutes without a basket in the first half, the Ants showed what happens when a jump shooting team isn't making its jump shots. Without Chris Hunter in the middle, who will be out for the season with a torn Achilles' tendon, the Ants need a scorer underneath, and they simply don't have it in Marvin Phillips, Darnell Lazare or 6-foot-11 Anthony Kent. Fort Wayne simply can't sustain the next two-thirds of the season hoping that Rod Wilmont will be hot from the three-point line and that inside penetration from guards Oliver Lafayette and Walker Russell Jr. will create enough open perimeter shots. It's a team that needs a big who can put the ball in the bucket from five feet and in. Phillips is a grinder who can shoot, but at 6-7, he's mismatched, and same with the 6-8 Lazare. Wilmont had 27 points Tuesday in the loss, and Lafayette had 22, but the Ants shot 39 percent from the floor compared to nearly 48 for Iowa.
Published: December 29, 2010 3:00 a.m.
Ants can't shoot straight
Steve Warden blogs all things Mad Ants.
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