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TAKING THE FIFTH

Maurice Carter hit five three-pointers for KC.

In front of their biggest crowd number of the season (4,417), the Kansas City Knights proved they have the Phoenix Eclipse's number, beating their Western Division rivals for the fifth time in seven tries Saturday night at Kemper Arena, 111-103.

Maurice Carter scored 33 points as the Knights, who led by 30 after three quarters, held on to keep their home court record perfect at 12-0 and their division lead at 2 1/2 games over the Southern California Surf.

Reggie Slater chipped in with 20 points on 10 of 13 shooting as Kansas City improved to an ABA-best 15-5.

Jamal Thomas led the Eclipse for the second straight night with 33 points of his own, but it was not enough to keep Phoenix from falling to 11-7. The Knights and Eclipse will meet again just one more time during the regular season, on March 15 in Phoenix.

THEUS NAMED SLAM COACH LAS VEGAS-Former UNLV and NBA player Reggie Theus was named the first Head Coach of the Las Vegas Slam of the ABA. The team also announced it will play at the 2,500-seat Cox Pavillion, and will not open its home season as originally scheduled on Monday, but instead on Tuesday, February 26 against Anaheim. Discuss it here

The Surf, meanwhile, opened an Eastern swing with a 104-86 victory over the Dogs in Detroit.

The Legends (6-8), who were to play at Kentucky Saturday night, took over first place in the Eastern Division with a 120-97 win at Detroit on Thursday Indiana, which is not scheduled to play at home again until March 7, has been rumored to be considering moving its home games from the Pepsi Coliseum at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, where the team has received scant support, to the Indiana Convention Center downtown. Convention Center officials have not yet responded to inquiries from almostbasketball.

In other news, ABA CEO Joe Newman broke a long silence and responded to almostbasketball queries about the recent postponement of games in Detroit and Indiana.

"(The games in Detroit) were postponed because we knew we were making changes in the schedule to add a West Coast team and wanted time to make some travel adjustments and changes," said Newman via email.

"Dropping a team and adding one is a very complicated process. There will probably be a few more changes before the season is over, but the games will be re-scheduled," vowed the ABA's head man.

As for Indiana's postponement/forfeit of games last Sunday and Monday, Newman would only say, cryptically, "the reason will be announced (Friday) or Monday, but we had reasons."