LANSING, MI. – The Pharaohs entered weekend #7 of TBL play with a Saturday night home matchup against a tough Flint United squad (record: 6-7) led by former Central Michigan University head coach, Kino Davis. The Pharaohs previously played Flint United on March 18th in a game that would go into overtime before Lansing would come out on top with a 143-136 victory.
The first quarter of Saturday’s game remained competitive as the two teams traded buckets back and forth leading to a 35-32 lead for the Pharaohs after 1. The Pharaohs kept pace in the second, but Flint’s offensive production began to dwindle as the team began to miss shots, they had made in the previous quarter leading to a 70-58 lead for the Pharaohs at halftime. The game slowed down in the second half as the Pharaohs were able to control the pace on offense and turn it up on defense to hold Flint to under 20 points in the third quarter. This allowed them to enter the fourth quarter in a place they’ve found themselves many times this season, up 20 after 3, score: 96-76. Things would get interesting in the fourth after the United started the fourth quarter on a 9-0 run, but the Pharaohs found their footing and managed to slow Flint down and finish the game with a 118-102 victory.
PG/SG, Latin Davis, lead all scorers on the Pharaohs with 29 points and also added 5 assists and 5 rebounds while Pharaoh’s PF, Sam Muldrow, contributed with a double-double that consisted of 11 points and a monstrous 17 rebounds. Pharaoh’s SF, James Johnson, continued to play a larger role in Muhammed El-Amin’s absence by adding 18 points and 5 rebounds while SG, Ja’myrin Jackson, put up 16 points and 6 rebounds against his former team (played with Flint for their 2021 season).
The win improves the Pharaoh’s record to 9-4 and moves the team into second place in the Upper Midwest Division of The Basketball League. The Pharaohs got a much-needed win, but it proved to be costly as starting C, Rozelle Nix, suffered an undisclosed injury that has him sidelined for the foreseeable future while starting SG, Ja’myrin Jackson suffered a mild wrist injury that would leave him unavailable for game two of the weekend. With the win against Flint on Saturday, the Pharaoh’s also improved to 4-0 against in-state competition allowing them to hold onto the Members Only Championship belt for at least one more day before their Sunday afternoon matchup against the Detroit Hustle (record: 4-10).