St. Louis blues

Victoria Sun

Friday, May 12, 2000 | 10:07 a.m.

Down, not done. Wounded, not dead.

There was guarded optimism in the voice of Silver Bandits guard Jeff Martin after the team's 113-106 loss to the St. Louis Swarm Thursday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Before an estimated 1,200, the Swarm took the first game of the International Basketball League West finals. Game 2 of the best-of-three playoff series will be played at St. Louis Monday night.

"It's going to be tough," Martin said of a comeback. "But this team has been fighting all year.

"We have to approach it like we're starting over again. Like we didn't lose this one, but we have to win two in a row there. We've beaten them at their home before."

But Las Vegas won't do it again if it surrenders a large lead and gets into foul trouble like it did at home.

Although the Silver Bandits grabbed six more rebounds than the Swarm, league-leading rebounder Rocky Walls fouled out with 5:35 left. About 2 1/2 minutes later, Las Vegas' J.R. Henderson, the team's leading scorer and second in rebounds, followed with his sixth foul.

Without the post presence of Walls and Henderson in the closing minutes, Swarm players were able to drive the lane at ease, scoring on layups or at the free-throw line. St. Louis made 15-of-21 free throws in the last 6:45.

Henderson scored a game-high 25 points while Martin had 21. Harold Ellis came off the bench for Las Vegas to add 22 points.

"The fouls did hurt us," Martin said. "We got into foul trouble early, then we gave them a lot of layups.

"At the end, we didn't make shots and we fouled them too much. The effort was there. Everybody played hard, we just couldn't get it done."

The Silver Bandits took their last lead, 84-82, after Walls dunked in a missed free throw by Henderson. St. Louis' Doug Smith made two free throws to tie the game, but then the Swarm scored on consecutive layups, capping a 16-6 run for a 10-point lead, the Swarm's biggest of the night.

Smith made 10-of-15 shots for 24 points and Marcus Bullard had 19.

According to Silver Bandits coach Barry Hecker, the game was lost with 2:20 left in the second quarter.

Martin sank one of his four 3-pointers to give the Silver Bandits a 54-44 lead.

But Las Vegas allowed the Swarm to score four fastbreak layups in a row and led by a meager three points at the half.

"We had the game under control in the first half," Hecker said. "We just let them score those easy baskets and get back into it.

"I told them, 'You've got to focus for an entire game.' We could have been up much more at the half and put the game away.

"Especially with this team, you can't take anything for granted. They can hurt you in different ways."

Victoria Sun is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach her at 259-4078 or by e-mail at victoria@lasvegassun.com