Red Claws win again, stay perfect at home

PORTLAND — The Maine Red Claws used a strong second half, outscoring the Erie BayHawks 57-35, to secure a 97-84 win Friday night at Portland Expo.

It extended the Red Claws’ (10-2) winning streak over Erie (5-7) to six games and made Maine 6-0 at home, the best start in team history.

It didn’t start well for Maine. Seth Curry had a big contribution to the BayHawks 29-19 lead in the first quarter, scoring 12 of his 25 points in the first 6:30 minutes of the game.

Erie shot 65 percent in the first quarter, capturing their biggest lead of the game (13) during that quarter. Ralph Sampson III led the Red Claws in scoring during the quarter with eight of his 12 total points.

Andre Stringer sparked the Red Claws’ second-half surge, scoring 12 points in 7:49 of play after coming off the bench in the third quarter. Omari Johnson matched Stringer’s third quarter spark with 10 points. The two were a combined 7-for-7 from the field in that stretch.

Curry led all scorers with 25 points. Daniel Coursey added 20 for Erie.

Johnson paced the Red Claws with 23 points. Chris Babb added 20 points and seven assists.