After losing Game 1, your hometown Enid Outlaws return to the Stride Bank Center Friday night at 7 pm for a must win game in the best of 3 Conference Finals series against the Shreveport Mavericks.
In the regular season, the Mavericks had the second-best record (19-5) in the Central conference, finishing one game behind the league leading Outlaws (20-4). The teams split their regular season matchups with the Outlaws winning 139-126 in Shreveport and the Mavericks winning 115-108 a week later in Enid.
Unfortunately, the Outlaws lost a little of that road magic and the Mavericks couldn’t miss in Game 1 of the series, with Enid losing 130-117 in Shreveport. The Mavericks had 4 players score more than 20 points and were led by 35 from 2nd Team All-Conference Paul Harrison (#40). Shreveport shot 59.4% from 2 and 37.6% from 3 and Enid just could not keep up. Kadavion Evans scored 31 followed by Daylon “Chuck” Guy’s 30. Ricardo Artis had 21 points and 14 rebounds.
Team Market Owner Jonathan Reed said, “We’ve been in this position before. All we have to do is take care of home and we will be fine. We really need the support of the fans to make this happen and bring another championship back to Enid.”
To reach the Central Conference Finals, Shreveport beat the tough Potawatomie Fire twice after losing the first game. First Team All-Conference Guard Bernard
“Paul” Parks (#23) is the Mavericks leading scorer at 23.3 PPG, and Guard Deandre McIntyre (#15) was a finalist for 6th man of the year after averaging 9.6 PPG and 4.2 RPG off the bench, which shows their depth. In the regular season matchups Parks averaged 29 PPG so Enid really has to keep him in check.
As for the Outlaws, Second Team All-Conference Ricardo Artis II has averaged 27 points and 14 rebounds against the Mavs in their 3 games, While newly named First Team All-TBL Point Guard Chuck Guy has averaged his typical all-around excellent numbers of 28 points, 9 assists and 7 rebounds.
Tickets start at $10 and can be purchased at stridebankcenter.com or at the door. Torrie Vann, Outlaw Superfan, reminds everyone that they are planning a whiteout for the game, and limited quantities of white shirts available to purchase at the game!
