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SHOWDOWN SERIES

Best in West Square Off in KC
Updated 5:15pm ET Friday, February 15, 2002

Pete Mickeal has averaged 18.1 points since joining the Knights.

By almostbasketball Staff

The two best teams in the ABA meet for the sixth and seventh times this season when the Kansas City Knights host the Phoenix Eclipse in back-to-back games Friday and Saturday night at Kemper Arena.

The Knights, who are either 13-5 or 14-5 depending on whether or not they are indeed credited with a forfeit win for Monday's game at Indiana that was never played, and the Eclipse, who are 11-5, are battling for first place in the division while trying to hold off the Southern California Surf (10-5).

The Knights have taken three of their five meetings with the Eclipse thus far, including both at Kemper, where they are a perfect 10-0 overall.

After playing each other seven times in the first half of the season, Phoenix and Kansas City will meet again just one more time during the regular season (March 15 in Phoenix), so this weekend's set is crucial for both teams.

Also this weekend, the Surf makes an Eastern swing, taking on the Dogs in Detroit on Saturday night and the Pro Cats in Kentucky on Sunday night. Indiana is at Kentucky Saturday night, and Las Vegas was scheduled to play Sunday at Detroit. There is some question as to whether that game will be played, as the ABA website has not released a revised ABA schedule, and a recent article only noted that the Slam would "open their season at home on Monday, February 18."

The same article makes an announcement that will be a huge relief to ABA-starved fans in Las Vegas: "The Slam hope to be a success in Las Vegas."

LEGENDS QUIET DOGS

DETROIT-Shea Seals scored 29 points to lead the Indiana Legends to a 120-97 win over the Detroit Dogs Thursday night at Cobo Arena.

With the win, the Legends took over first place in the ABA's Eastern Division at 6-8. Victor Thomas had 21 points for Indiana, while Damon Bethea had 20. Chansey Willis' 24 led the Dogs.

Las Vegas has yet to announce where Monday's game will be played, though a UNLV spokesman told almostbasketball on Thursday that they had spoken with the Slam's representatives about using the Thomas & Mack Center.

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."

OURSPORTS CENTRAL




© almostbasketball
SCORES
2/14Indiana120DETROIT97
2/10PHOENIX124S.California120
2/10KAN.CITY120Detroit94
2/9KENTUCKY114Chicago103
2/8KAN.CITY114Phoenix101
All Scores
STANDINGS
EASTWLPct.GB
Indiana68.429
Detroit46.400--
Kentucky412.2504
Chicago-x07.000
x=Team suspended operations 2/11/02
WESTWLPct.GB
Kansas City135.722---
Phoenix115.6881
Southern California105.667
Las Vegas00---4
HEADLINES
Knights have big games, big plans
(Kansas City Star)
Rush Released by Knights
(Associated Press)
Knights Rush to Release JaRon
(Kansas City Star)
New Team Has Look of Bad Joke
(Las Vegas Sun)
Las Vegas Gets ABA Team
(Las Vegas Review-Journal)
All News
UPCOMING GAMES
FRI2/15Phoenix@Kan.City8:15KCXL
SAT2/16S.California@Detroit7:30
SAT2/16Phoenix@Kan.City8:15KCXL
SAT2/16Indiana@Kentucky7:30
SUN2/17Las Vegas@Detroit2:00
SUN2/17S.California@Kentucky7:30
Full Schedule
LINKS
Official ABA Site
knightsfans.com
Oursports Central ABA page
Jose's Phoenix Eclipse Page
CROWD CONTROL
TeamGTotalAvg.
Kansas City*916,1661,796
Phoenix1012,8051,281
S.California1011,6381,164
Kentucky94,331481
Indiana*1350350
Chicago*000
Detroit*000
LEAGUE*3945,2901,161
*Missing Data
KC 1/10/02
Indiana 1/15/02, 1/16/02, 1/21/02, 1/31/02
Chicago 1/20/02, 1/23/02
Detroit 1/26/02, 2/14/02