Silver Bandits rebound with win over Rhythm

Victoria Sun

Thursday, April 13, 2000 | 10:14 a.m.

After incurring their worst home loss of the season the previous night, it figured that the Las Vegas Silver Bandits were either going to come out flat or take it out on the Richmond Rhythm.

Let's just say that the Rhythm picked a bad night to show up at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The Silver Bandits showed a lot of heart during their 114-108 victory over visiting Richmond before an estimated 300.

Las Vegas is now 34-25 and Richmond 21-34 with five games left in the regular season.

"I expect to win every game," Silver Bandits interim head coach Barry Hecker said. "And I think the guys expect to win.

"We just got it back to the way things were when we were winning (consistently, including an 11-game win streak from Dec. 28 to Jan. 20 and a seven-game win streak from Jan. 23 to Feb. 13). We rebounded well, we played defense and we shared the ball."

The Silver Bandits were led by league-leading scorer J.R. Henderson with 23 points, and Isaac Burton with 17 points and nine assists.

Henderson scored the team's first six points and helped establish a solid inside game along with reserve Doug Swenson, who made 8-of-8 free throws. Henderson made 9-of-10 free throws, and as a team the Silver Bandits sank 36-of-44 compared to Richmond's 15-of-30.

"I thought J.R. played extremely well and so did Isaac," Hecker said. "We ran stuff through J.R. and he responded.

"When those two guys play well the rest of the team feeds off them. Doug Swenson made a big difference for us inside because he clogs up the lane."

The Silver Bandits held A.J. English, Richmond's leading scorer entering the game, to one point on 0-of-10 shooting and forced the team to commit 21 turnovers.

John Morton led the Rhythm with 29 points and Jerod Ward had 23.