The Indiana Lyons faced the defending Midwest Region champions, the Music City Jazz, at home in Bosstick Gym on Saturday in American Basketball Association (ABA) action, cruising to a dominant 106-94 victory in a revenge game.
The Lyons had this game circled on their calendar since the 2022-23 schedule was released, as the Jazz beat the Lyons 93-90 in March of this year in the waning seconds of the ABA Midwest Region Championship Game in St. Louis. The loss ended the Lyons’ 2021-22 campaign.
Saturday’s contest was a different affair. Two of the Jazz’s most prominent players from a season ago did not return to the team this year, so Music City limped into town from Nashville nursing a 1-4 record.
That didn’t matter to the Lyons, however. They wanted their pound of flesh for the season-ending loss last spring.
Alex “A.B.” Brown, who was the most visibly crestfallen Lyon after the playoff loss, made it his personal mission to wreak as much havoc as possible on Saturday. He was a scoring, dunking, rebounding, and shot-blocking machine as the Lyons jumped out to a 30-7 lead in the first quarter and never looked back.
Music City never led in the contest, and they trailed by more than 20 points for much of the game.
They also didn’t do themselves any favors, with Jazz players, coaches, and fans constantly complaining to the referees. Many of their protests were a result of failing to understand ABA rules.
Two Jazz players received warnings from the officials in the first half, and the zebras finally reached their limit in the second half, calling a total of four technical fouls against Music City and ejecting one of their players.
After Brown, Gerald “Cam” Campbell, Dillon Ware, and Jordan Hidleburg seemingly scored at will in the first half, most of the Lyons starters yielded to reserve players for the remainder of the game.
The victory was the Lyons’ third in a row – all at home in the Lyons Den – and evened their season record at 4-4.
The home team was without Mike Pugh, Eric Messer, Donnell Jones, and LaJuan Whitney in this contest for a variety of reasons, and Tee Williams suffered a foot injury during the game, spending most of the second half on the bench wearing a boot.
Fortunately, the Lyons have some time to get everyone healthy again, as this was their last game in 2022. They head to Ohio during the first weekend of January to take on the Burning River Buckets in Cleveland and the Ohio Bruins in Columbus. Both opponents are ranked in the ABA’s Top 25.
The Lyons’ next home game is Saturday, Jan. 14 in Bosstick Gym against the expansion Illinois Skulls.
The ISC Sports Network broadcast of this game can be found by clicking here.
