Without James Mays, Armor Descent Continues

A bad case of the flu has the Springfield Armor down. James Mays, Springfield's 6'9" center and a call-up candidate, has missed three straight games with the flu, all of the losses. The latest came New Years Eve when the Armor's traditional rival, the Maine Red Claws, beat the Armor 105-84.

Maine jumped to a 20-point lead by the second quarter. Springfield rallied in spurts, but never cut the deficit below 14.

"We’d work it down, but we couldn’t get over the hump," said forward Carleton Scott, who again led the Armor with 15 points and nine rebounds. "We kept fighting, but we’d run into a wall. And they’d throw another big flurry at us."

The Armor, now 8-4, did get some production from their backcourt. Ramone Moore, the Atlantic 10 player of the year at Temple, and Ben Uzoh, the ex-Net, both had 14, Christian Polk, a three-point specialist out of UTEP, had 11 and Shawn Vanzant, who played on both of Butler's NCAA Finalists, finished with 10.

Micah Downs, a 6'8" point forward the Celtics are developing in Maine, led all scorers with 23.

• Springfield Armor end year on down note with 105-84 loss to Maine - Kevin Thomas - Springfield Republican
• Game Report: Armor at Red Claws - D-League