INDIANAPOLIS – Fort Wayne used a big closing stretch to top Oklahoma City 133-119 on Wednesday afternoon at Gainbridge Fieldhouse

Fort Wayne raced out to a 12-6 lead with all five starters contributing to those early first quarter points. The Blue bounced back to make it 14-10, still in Fort Wayne’s favor at the 7:13 mark on a Sacha Killeya-Jones basket. The Mad Ants maintained a slight lead throughout the quarter but extended the lead to 26-21 with 1:57 to go in the first on a Kendall Brown basket in transition. With 40.9 seconds left, a Jahmi’us Ramsey three gave Oklahoma City their first lead at 27-26. At the end of the first, Fort Wayne held a 28-27 lead.

With 9:15 left in the first half, a Justin Anderson and-one extended Fort Wayne’s lead to 38-33, answered again by the Blue on the other end with a tough Jaden Schackelford basket at the rim; Killeya-Jones would add a basket on the next trip to get the Blue within one. OKC would take a lead but a 5:03 mark dunk from Noah Starkey off the find from Trevelin Queen gave Fort Wayne the lead right back at 48-47. At the half, Fort Wayne led Oklahoma City 69-62.

The Blue opened the third on a 9-6 run, but couldn’t cut deep into the Mad Ants lead despite a Jeremiah Robinson-Earl bucket at 8:29 ending a scoring drought for both teams. A Killeya-Jones basket with 8:08 remaining in the third made it a 77-75 game, still in Fort Wayne’s favor. With 5:17 left in the third, Fort Wayne put an exclamation point on a scoring run with a Justin Anderson three pointer to extend their lead to 87-79. With 1:32 remaining, Kendall Brown slammed home a basket off an inbound pass from Anderson to extend the Mad Ants lead to 96-81. After three, Fort Wayne held a 98-85 lead.

With 9:53 left in the fourth, Queen knocked away an OKC alley-oop attempt which was then finished on the other end by a Kendall Brown dunk to make it 105-92 in the Mad Ants’ favor. With 8:40 to play, OKC got back within single digits at 107-98 on an Adam Mokoka three pointer. Ramsey pulled OKC closed with 5:49 left on the free throw line, 111-106. With 3:05 left, Gabe York stripped the ball away from OKC and finished on the other end to push the lead to 120-113 for Fort Wayne.

Eight of the nine Mad Ants scored in double figures, led by Gabe York’s 27, Justin Anderson’s 22 and Trevelin Queen’s 21 points. Joining them were 12 points each from Tevin Brown, Kendall Brown, Jermaine Samuels, Noah Starkey and Pedro Bradshaw. Starkey and Bradshaw each had 9 rebounds to lead Fort Wayne.

Robinson-Earl lead the Blue with 26 points and 10 rebounds, followed by 20 points from Ousmane Dieng and 14 assists from Abdul Gaddy.