Silver Bandits outrun Swarm

Victoria Sun

Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2000 | 9:38 a.m.

The Las Vegas Silver Bandits and the St. Louis Swarm played what resembled a game of one-upsmanship Monday night, seeing who could top the other with mini-runs.

And Las Vegas came out on top when it counted most -- in the fourth quarter.

Thanks to a stingy defense led by Rocky Walls and Jeff Martin, the Silver Bandits outhustled the Swarm down the stretch for a 100-90 victory at the Thomas & Mack Center for their fifth straight victory.

More importantly, the win pulled Las Vegas (19-11) within a half-game of the West Division-leading Swarm (18-9).

"We knew we were getting close to being in first place," Walls said. "We want to be in first; we deserve to be there."

Walls finished with his 19th double-double of the year, amassing 14 points and 15 rebounds. J.R. Henderson led Las Vegas with 20 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, while Isaac Burton had 14 points and 11 assists.

The Swarm outscored the Silver Bandits in the second and third quarters, but still held only a 74-73 edge entering the fourth quarter.

After Marcus Liberty hit a 3-pointer with 10:23 left in the game to snap a 76-76 tie, he followed with a steal off the Swarm's Chris Hollender, then fed Harold Ellis for a tomahawk dunk for a five-point cushion.

Then Martin spearheaded the defensive effort by stripping St. Louis' Byron Houston, leading to an 8-foot jumper by Ellis to put Las Vegas up 83-76.

On the other end, Martin prevented the Swarm from scoring again by blocking Erwin Claggett.

Walls was equally effective on defense. When St. Louis tried to make a run, he nabbed three consecutive defensive rebounds.

"What we said before the game was we didn't want to give them 3-pointers," Silver Bandits coach Rolland Todd said. "They got a couple shots, but when they got them, they struggled so hard to get them that I felt like we took away their offensive rhythm.

"We did a good job of holding them. I think most of the teams in this league don't run as much as we do so their shots suffer in the fourth quarter because they don't have their legs any more.

"They were working hard at their end to get some shots and at the same time, they weren't able to stop us."

For the game, the Silver Bandits outrebounded the Swarm 55-47 and held the Swarm to 37.5 percent shooting, 28.6 percent from 3-point range. In contrast, Las Vegas made 47.3 percent of its field goals and 43.8 of its 3-pointers.

"We're so deep," Walls said. "We've got players on the bench who have been in the NBA.

"Any one of us is capable of scoring 20 points."

One guy who won't be doing that for a while is Doug Lee. Lee pulled his right hamstring and won't be playing tonight during the Silver Bandits' home game against San Diego.