Rally falls short for Mad Ants, who split pair at Long Island

Justin Anderson missed a long 3-point attempt at the buzzer and the Mad Ants lost 113-112 to the Long Island Nets on Thursday night at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.

A night after the Mad Ants won 125-115 at the same venue, scoring the final 12 points, Fort Wayne almost took advantage of another poor finish by the Nets.

Long Island was up 110-103 with 3:02 remaining Thursday but missed four of its last five shots and had three turnovers. Meanwhile, Fort Wayne got a 2-point Walt Lemon Jr. free throw, an Anderson dunk, a Gabe York layup and an Anderson 3-pointer.

Anderson had 24 points on 9 of 23 shooting – he was 5 of 12 from beyond the arc – and Nate Hinton added 18 points and nine rebounds for the Mad Ants (2-3). York, Lemon and Russ Smith had 14 points apiece.

The Nets (4-5) were paced by Brandon Rachal’s 24 points and 8 rebounds. Craig Randall II and Bryce Brown had 22 points each, in front of an announced crowd of 843.

jcohn@jg.net