South Bay Lakers fail to four-peat, lose to Northern Arizona Suns

Round four for the South Bay Lakers and the Northern Arizona Suns went down in Prescott Arizona Sunday night with South Bay looking for the sweep.

The South Bay Lakers (27-18) entered the game on Sunday up 3-0 in their series with the Northern Arizona Suns (21-24). This would be the fourth meeting between the two teams and the second game of a South Bay back-to-back.

In game one of the series, played on Dec. 5, 2017, the two teams took it to overtime in Prescott. South Bay beat the Suns 148-144 in overtime led by Scott Machado. Machado scored a career-high 39 points in the win. The Suns recorded a franchise record-high,144 points in their second loss to the Lakers.

Roughly two months later on Jan. 31, 2018, in their second meeting, South Bay beat the Suns again at home,133-108. Former Bruin star Travis Wear scored 24 points and grabbed a career-high 17 rebounds that night. Wear was awarded NBA G-League Player of the week for his performance against the Suns and his follow-up performance in a victory at Salt Lake City (25 points and nine rebounds).

Fast forward to February, and the two teams met for a third time on Feb. 9th. South Bay beat the Suns once more at home, 123-118.

Los Angeles Lakers

That brings us to Sunday night’s game. The Lakers traveled to Northern Arizona after convincingly beating a solid 25-20 Rio Grand Vipers team, 134-117, behind Thomas Bryant‘s near triple-double (20 points, nine rebounds and assists) at home on Saturday night.

A stripped down South Bay team would have Thomas Bryant on the roster on assignment but were without Gary Payton II, Alex Caruso, and Ivica Zubac. Machado was out as well. Without their regular floor generals in Machado and Caruso, there were minutes for head coach Coby Karl to hand out to Lakers who usually grace the bench.

Robert Heyer (3-3) and James Southerland (3-4) each scored a team-high eight points in the first quarter. Steph Branch kept South Bay in the game with his high activity in the second quarter along with a few three’s from Southerland, Bryant and VJ Beachem.

Not going to lie, South Bay played a bit sloppy. Bad passes mostly hindered the team and they could have easily been up by ten points or more.

The second quarter ended in fireworks. The Suns Josh Gray and Lakers Demarcus Holland exchanged words resulting in double technical fouls. The Suns needed a win. They had lost their last five games and three in the past to the South Bay Lakers.

In the first half, South Bay made six of 14 three’s which kept them in the game. And while the Suns only shot eight and made four, they were still making 65 percent of their field goals. The teams combined for a total of seven attempts from the charity stripe, so the referees were letting them play. The Suns were up 66-61 at the end of the half.

Both teams strolled through the third quarter, literally. But Bryant and Southerland both continued to have the hot hands. Bryant was taken down, tackled, and got the flagrant call. The T’s were flying around Prescott Center and were mostly called on the Suns. You get a technical, and you get a technical. You get the picture.

The Suns Josh Gray was feeling his mojo on defense and caused some trouble for the Lakers. Down by 12 points, the Lakers came back within one, but the Suns kept coming and at the end of the third quarter were up by three points, 94-91. There were 13 lead changes and five ties so far, it had been a very close game and either team could walk away with a win.

In the fourth quarter, the Lakers started getting sloppy again. The Suns would capitalize and outscored the Lakers 12-4 with eight minutes to go. The Suns would go up by 14, 110-97, on a four-point play by Gray who got fouled by Bryant on a three-point shot. Each time the Lakers got momentum, the Suns would come back.

With four minutes left, the Lakers had to make up a 16-point deficit, the largest lead on the night. Gray had 35 points, and the Lakers had turned over the ball 23 times. Bryant could have used Caruso or Machado, his wingmen.

South Bay pretty much gave up with under two minutes to go, losing game four by 17 points, 137-120. The Suns’ Gray ended the game by trash talking the Lakers bench and got another technical. Hey, why not? He scored 38 points on the night, hitting 6-11 from 3-point range

South Bay is now 4-3 on the season in the second game of a back-to-back. Andre Ingram is one away from logging 700 three’s in his career, scoring 28 points on Sunday night playing for 41 minutes, the most of any Lakers on the night.

Branch was hot off the bench scoring 21 points and snatching eight rebounds as his energy kept the Lakers in the game. Southerland scored 18 points, dropped six dimes and grabbed six rebounds. Demarcus Holland scored a double-double scoring 13 points and securing 12 rebounds.

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South Bay will take on the Agua Caliente Clippers for the fourth and final time in the regular season on Thursday, March 15 at 7:00 at the UCLA Health Training Center. DO NOT MISS THIS GAME! This is a G-League rivalry and both teams and their coaches will want this win badly. The series stands at 2-1 in South Bay’s favor.