TROUTDALE, Ore. – The Bellingham Slam withstood a late run from the Portland Chinooks to win their seventh straight International Basketball League game, 147-130 at the Reynolds Center on Sunday afternoon.
It was a tale of two halves as the travel-weary Slam couldn’t get their offense going for most of the first half. After netting a season-low 17 first quarter points and trailing by 13 early in the second quarter, at 33-20, Bellingham finally got things going and were able to whittle away at the deficit, and used a 13-0 run in the quarter’s last two minutes to take a 60-55 lead into halftime.
The reinvigorated Slam came out strong in the second half, putting up 47 points in the third quarter to take a 13-point lead, at 107-94 after three periods.
The Chinooks didn’t go away quietly down the stretch, led by David Lucas’ 15 points in the quarter, as they got within six points, at 128-122, with 4:45 left to play.
But Bellingham’s Brian Dennis quelled Portland’s run by scoring the game’s next six points to push the margin back to twelve points. The Slam used clutch free throw shooting the rest of the way to preserve the victory.
Ryan Diggs led the Slam in scoring for the eighth time this season with 29 points. Tyler Amaya contributed a double-double of 22 points and 12 rebounds while Dennis finished with a season-high of 16 points.
Portland was led by the 42 points of Lucas on 15-for-22 shooting. Marc Williams and David Fisher shared second-best scoring honors for the Chinooks with 21 points apiece.