OMAHA -- Silver Dragons
(29767)' 47-point-a-game scoring machine Francois Chomat
(10780342) played only five minutes... and they damn near won anyway.
With Chomat out with an injury, the Omaha Racers outlasted a surprisingly strong Chomat-less Silver Dragons team 115-107 in the first game of the best-of-three league championship series.
The Dragons seamlessly switched offensive focus to Polish power forward Grzegorz Bajon
(9656250), who poured in 45 points, his highest output ever, and by far his most of the season.
The difference in the game was a 10-0 Racers run late in the third quarter, which started when Racers big man Abel Daniels
(16436728) forced up a three-point shot, which went in, giving Omaha a 77-76 lead.
Then Racers rookie point guard Matt Gifford
(22085254) came up with a steal, an assist, and a defensive stop on the next two trips, helping move the lead to 81-76; Francesco Munegato
(9372749)'s three-pointer pushed it to 84-76.
In the fourth, two Bajon baskets cut Omaha's lead to 92-91, but after a 9-0 Racers run, Silver Dragons never got within 5.
Arkadiy Khvostenko
(13525659) proved to be an inadequate replacement for Chomat at shooting guard, going only 3 of 12 for 10 points. Chomat scored 14 in his 5 minutes, suggesting that Omaha's defensive gameplan wasn't very good.
The series returns to Dragon Den for Game 2, but the big question is: will Chomat be ready to play?