Ignite drop to 0-3 on road trip, 3-7 overall with loss to Warriors

Three games into a four-game road trip has yet to yield a victory for this year’s NBA G League Ignite team, dropping their last contest against Santa Cruz.

After a lopsided fourth quarter, the Ignite were bested by the Warriors, 108-100, Friday, Nov. 25 from the Kaiser Permanente Arena. This most recent loss drops the NBA’s developmental team’s road record to 1-5 this season.

Earlier this month, the Ignite stormed back from a 25-point deficit to come away with a 10-point win over Santa Cruz.

With their 3-7 record, the Ignite will turn their attention to the Salt Lake City Stars for a Monday, Nov. 28 matchup from the Maverik Center in Utah. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.

Santa Cruz won the fourth and final quarter, 31-20, after the Ignite took a three-point lead into the final 12 minutes of play.

With things slipping out-of-reach late, the Ignite bench was called for a technical with the team down eight. The technical foul free throw pushed the lead to 9 points.

Not long after, the lead would balloon to 12 points, the largest of the night for the home team. The Ignite would cut it down to three but would not get closer than that.

Earlier in the fourth quarter, Santa Cruz snagged its first lead of the game since leading 33-31 with less than eight and a half minutes left in the second quarter.

The lead was taken on a dunk by Warriors center James Wiseman, who finished with 12 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field to go along with eight rebounds and two blocks.

Ignite forward Leonard Miller didn’t score his first points of the game until the second quarter but was able to find his rhythm shortly after.

Moments after scoring his first points of the game, he’d convert on an and-one basket that cut the home team lead down to two.

In fact, Miller’s dunk with 8:05 left in the first half gave the visitors a slight, 35-33, lead. He’d follow up with a putback that put his team up four points.

Miller finished with a team-high 20 points on 8-of-17 from the floor and eight rebounds. He turns 19 years old tomorrow.

Center Eric Mika capitalized on an eight-point, five-rebound first quarter to secure his third double-double in the last four games.

Mika posted monster numbers, ending the night with 16 points and 15 rebounds. The former Sacramento King came into the game averaging 11.3 points per game to go along with 8.2 rebounds per contest.