Celtics Roll To Blowout Win

PORTLAND, ME – Along with all three Two-Way players and its rookie assignee, the Maine Celtics shot 51.6% from the field and made 12 threes in a bounce-back win over the Westchester Knicks, 130-100. 

Neemias Queta stuffed the stat sheet with 24 points, 15 rebounds, five assists, four blocks and two steals, his second double-double in as many games with Maine (12-11). JD Davison added 23 points, five rebounds and 12 assists, his 19^th double-double this season. DJ Steward dropped 21 points and tied his career-high with 12 rebounds. Drew Peterson posted 16 points, six rebounds and three assists, while Jordan Walsh added 16 points and five rebounds. Brandon Slater scored 10 points on a perfect 4-4 shooting with two made 3-pointers. 

Charlie Brown Jr. led Westchester (6-16) with 24 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Brandon Goodwin registered 24 points and seven assists, and Obadiah Noel chipped in 19 and five rebounds. Abdullah Ahmed contributed 10 points and nine rebounds.   

Maine started the afternoon off with a bang, with Davison collecting a steal seconds after the opening tip, lobbing it up to Walsh, and then throwing down an open court dunk himself on the next trip. The Celtics continued getting the ball up the floor in a hurry early on, scrambling Westchester’s defense to create space and open driving lanes. Davison walked into a pull-up triple and knocked it down to give the Celtics a 15-6 lead trigger a Knicks timeout. Westchester ripped off a 7-0 run to get within four soon after, but Davison set the tone in the first with nine points and the Celtics fired back with a 13-9 run to close the first and take a 37-29 lead into the second. 

The Celtics held serve in the early portion of the second. The recently acquired Malcolm Cazalon canned his first three as a Knick to get Westchester within nine, then six unanswered made it a five-point game, 45-50. Maine responded in kind with five-straight capped off by Kylor Kelley’s and-one dunk, stretching the lead to double-digits again. A last-second floater from Davison extended the Celtics’ lead to 15 by halftime, 66-51, with the Two-Ways leading the charge; Davison notched 13 and five assists, Queta had 10 and seven board, and Peterson put up seven and five rebounds of his own across the first two quarters. 

Brown finished one at the rim to get the third quarter underway; Joe Wieskamp and Davison drained consecutive triples to pick up where Maine left off in the first half. The foursome of Davison, Peterson, Queta and Walsh combined for 56 of the team’s first 81 points, leading the charge for the Celtics in a decisive third frame. The Knicks trimmed their deficit to a dozen, 86-74, midway through the third, but Maine quickly widened the gap back out, continuing to dominate on the glass and shoot at a blistering clip. Peterson’s free throw line floater made it a 21-point game and the Celtics kept it rolling into the fourth, setting themselves up with a commanding 105-80 advantage. 

Maine kept the pressure on in the fourth, maintaining the pace and ball pressure that propelled them to such a sizeable advantage. With the lead oscillating in the mid-20s, Walsh and Kelley put the exclamation points on a much-needed win with some high-flying dunks, and the Celtics continued to breeze through the fourth quarter en route to a 30-point victory, the team’s first 30-point win of the regular season. 

Maine has the next four days off before they head out on a homecoming road trip for Wisconsin native and Celtics head coach Blaine Mueller. The Celtics and Wisconsin Herd are scheduled for a back-to-back on March 1 and 2.