Charge Stop Celtics At Expo

PORTLAND, ME – The Maine Celtics had three players score 20-plus, but a season-high 30 points from Aleem Ford powered the Cleveland Charge to a 110-103 win. 

Drew Peterson led Maine (6-7) with 26 points, a career-high 12 rebounds and six assists. DJ Steward tallied 23 points and eight assists while Jordan Walsh had 21 points and seven rebounds. JD Davison notched his 17^th double-double of the season with 13 points, six rebounds and 11 assists. 

Ford paced Cleveland (6-7) with 30 points on 10-21 shooting (5-11 from downtown), adding seven rebounds. Sharife Cooper neared a triple-double with 23 points, nine rebounds and 14 assists. Zhaire Smith logged 23 points and six rebounds. Gabe Osabuohien chipped in 16 points, four rebounds, two steals and a block. 

Cooper and Tony Snell each laid one in to open the scoring in developed into a slow-paced battle over the course of the evening. Walsh scored four of Maine’s first eight points while Cleveland’s offense ran through Cooper and Osabuohien to start. Both teams shot efficiently in the first quarter, making the most of scoring opportunities in halfcourt possessions. The advantage tilted towards the Charge early, which led 20-15 after Cooper nailed a 26-footer. Davison took over the late-first, scoring 11 points in less than four minutes and then dishing to Walsh for a three to beat the first-quarter horn. The Celtics ended the frame on a 12-4 run to take a 27-24 lead into the second quarter. 

After a scoreless minute-and-a-half to open the frame, Walsh dropped off a pass to James Banks III waiting in the dunker spot for a throw-down. Soon after, a 13-2 run from the Charge pushed them in front, 37-31. The run would build to 19-7 before Maine responded, putting them in an eight-point hole after shooting 4-11 in the first seven minutes of the quarter. Cleveland controlled flow of the game as the second wore on, shooting 54.5% from the field; to boot, Ford dropped his season-high in scoring just in the first half with 22 points, earning the Charge a 58-47 lead heading into halftime. 

A 9-2 Maine run to open the second half got the Celtics within four, capped off by Walsh collecting his own miss and putting it back for a dunk. Cleveland fired back with a run of their own to stretch the lead to 10, 69-59, before Peterson caught fire. The rookie forward cashed three right-wing triples in a row, quickly bringing the Celtics back within a handful. Cooper stole it and laid it in, but Peterson countered with his fifth three of the third on the next trip down. Thanks to 17 points in the frame from Peterson, Maine trailed by just three, 78-75 as the fourth quarter arrived. 

Another early-quarter run from the Charge, this time 10-2, put some distance between them and the Celtics; Cooper’s driving layup down the left side of the lane triggered a timeout from head coach Blaine Mueller with Maine trailing 85-77, and Ford’s triple a few minutes later extended the Cleveland lead to a dozen, 96-84. Steward put together a solo 8-0 run over three possessions to trim the deficit to four points, but the momentum didn’t last long; Smith and Osabuohien each hit a three, stretching Cleveland’s lead to eight in the final three minutes. The Celtics kept it close down the stretch with a few timely buckets, but the Charge iced it at the line, earning themselves a bounce-back win after Maine claimed victory the previous night. 

The Celtics hit the road for a back-to-back set with Raptors 905 in Mississauga, Ontario on Jan. 30 and 31 before returning to the Expo for a Feb. 2 matchup with the Grand Rapids Gold.