The Canton Charge set a new season-high for points in a 118-105 victory over the Springfield Armor on Sunday afternoon at the MassMutual Center. Canton is now 13-8 overall and finishes their eight-game road trip at .500, while the Armor drop to 6-15.
Both teams were hot offensively from the get-go, with Canton hitting 13-of-21 shots in the first (62%) and Springfield netting 14-of-24 shots (58%). It was also a clean start to the game, with only three combined turnovers in the quarter and neither team hitting the foul bonus. The visitors held a 31-30 advantage after the game's first 12 minutes.
The game continued to be closely contested in the second with five ties and three lead changes before eventually being knotted up at the half, 53-53. Springfield's Jeff Foote led all scorers with 15 on 6-of-6 shooting at the intermission, while Gilbert Brown paced Canton with 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting.
With the game tied 60-60 and 9:52 left in the third, the Charge made their move to outscore the Armor 25-17 the rest of the period and leading by as many as 13.Brown added 13 more to his points tally in the quarter on 4-of-6 shooting, while Canton went 12-of-17 as a team (71%) and scored 14 of their 32 points in the paint en route to being up 85-77.
The Charge led the rest of the way and by as many as 15 thanks in part to Olek Czyz's outburst of 14 fourth quarter points on 4-of-4 three-point shooting. Canton outrebounded Springfield in the game 43-32 and are now 3-1 in the head-to-head series between the two teams so far this season.
Brown finished with 25 points on 8-of-13 shooting in 32 minutes for his ninth straight game with double-digit scoring. Arinze Onuaku came off the bench to provide 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting with nine rebounds, a block and a steal in 25 minutes. Czyz finished with 17 points and seven boards in 26 minutes. Jorge Gutierrez posed a double-double of 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting with 10 assists and seven rebounds in 34 minutes.
Foote led Springfield with a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds with three steals and a block in 37 minutes. Darius Johnson-Odom scored 26 points with five rebounds, five assists and a steal in 36 minutes. Both teams combined to shoot 67 free throws in the game, as Canton hit 23-of-31 (74%) while the Armor converted 25-of-36 attempts from the charity stripe (69%).
The Charge return home to the Civic Center for an afternoon contest on tomorrow, January 20 at 3:00 p.m. against the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.
