Austin Toros Rout Tulsa 66ers 98-76 behind 30 from Alonzo Gee

Alonzo Gee continued his torrid scoring, now at 25.7 points per game, with a hefty 30.  He did it on a lot of pull up jumpers and dunks.  His dunks were off cuts and fast breaks, his pull ups were off high post ups on the wing.  He just flat out has ball scoring skills.  With his size, and ability to pull up off the dribble with contact -- he's very big and strong which gives him the ability to create space after a collision -- he is going to be a very difficult cover in the D-League.

However, not everything is great for him.  He has a lot of work to do.

Things For Gee To Improve

First and foremost, he needs to learn to rebound.  He can start by learning to box out.  Whenever a shot went up, and there was nobody between him and the basket, he went directly UNDER the basket for the rebound.  Had the shot been made, he would have been in perfect position to catch it coming through the net.  Since they were missed, his man ended up with the ball.

Second, he needs to learn to protect his dribble from the quick and small defender.  At least twice, and possibly three times, Mustafa Shakur picked his pocket.

Third, he needs better conditioning.  He seemed to really get winded in the second half.

That's all the bad right there.  He has shown some great skills otherwise.

Them Other Dudes Are Pretty Good Too

Curtis Jerrells didn't put up big numbers tonight, but he looks SO much better.  Or, as Coach Snyder said, "like an NBA point guard".  He just really played a nice controlled game.  Took his shots when he had to and made the simple plays.

Russell Carter get a couple shots to fall from the outside tonight -- as did many Toros -- and continued to show a great ability to finish in the paint.

Justin Bowen hit outside shots, finished in the paint, rebounded, and was generally annoying.

Dwayne Jones banged, put back shots, blocked shots, and did Charley Rosen proud by setting solid picks.

That Other Team

Byron Mullens, the Buckeye formerly known as BJ Mullens, plays for the Tulsa 66ers.  Tulsa is the Thunder affiliate and he's on assignment.  They also have Devon Hardin, Mustafa Shakur, fresh out of high school Latavious Williams, and four guys from Oral Roberts.  Hardin and Mullens provide a HUGE front line for the height challenged Toros, but our bigs held their own.

As For The Game

The Toros jumped out to a 14-2 lead and never looked back.  In fact, I'm pretty sure it never got under 10.  The Toros had it at 17 after one, 18 at the half, and 28 after the third.  For the first time this year, they started hitting outside shots and it really opened things up for them as they successfully executed several back cuts and dives off high screens.

NOTE:  Sorry for the lack of statistics.  The official game stats got messed up early in the first quarter and they weren't able to recover.  I had to go by memory.