Canton pounds boards, beats BayHawks in opener

Nov. 23--In two exhibition wins in Texas last week, the Erie BayHawks filled up the basket by scoring nearly 120 points a game and played hounding defense. One stat in particular, though, stood out in those box scores.

The BayHawks were out-rebounded in those two games -- albeit narrowly -- and that seemed to be at least some cause for concern going into Friday's opener against the Canton Charge at Erie Insurance Arena. That concern materialized Friday and, coupled with a cold shooting night, sent the BayHawks to a 102-91 loss to the Charge and left coach Gene Cross vowing to fix what ailed his team in its opener.

The BayHawks fell behind early, shot 37.6 percent and never gave themselves much of a chance to take control by getting out-rebounded 61-38.

"The most glaring difference was on the backboards," Cross said. "Sixty-one to 38, I don't think I've ever seen that. When you get handled like that on the backboards, you don't put yourself in good position to win. And then we didn't take good shots."

The BayHawks started with a bang, with Mustafa Shakur taking the ball off the opening tip and lobbing an alley-oop pass from about 25 feet out that C.J. Leslie slammed through the hoop, sending a charge through the opening-night crowd of 4,410.

But that was as good as it got.

Canton took control inside and built a 52-40 halftime lead. The BayHawks cut it to 71-69 late in the third quarter, but the Charge responded with back-to-back baskets to end the quarter.

Rashad Anderson led Canton with 19 points and 10 rebounds, and Kevin Jones added 15 points and 19 rebounds. Shane Edwards nearly added a third double-double, finishing just shy with 18 points and nine boards.

"We got mixed up on a lot of plays, and that's guys just needing to learn each other," Davis said. "We'll put it together."

The BayHawks were missing 6-foot 10-inch center Jeremy Tyler and 6-foot 9-inch forward C.J. Aiken, both inactive with injuries. Shakur scored a team-high 19 points, and Leslie added 16 along with seven rebounds. Knicks guard Chris Smith, on assignment with the BayHawks, had 10 points.

But the BayHawks shot 29 percent from 3-point range and compounded it by not retrieving many of those misses.

"They're a good team," Cross said of Canton. "They produced on the boards and they took good shots, and we didn't. I don't think we played well defensively, but again I want to give them credit. They played good, they played hard, and we have to fix our discrepancies on the backboard and we've got to be better offensively."

- Notes: Cross said Tyler, who joined the BayHawks on Thursday, continues to rehab a foot injury and likely will not see the floor until early December.

JOHN DUDLEY can be reached at 870-1677 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNdudley.

... Smith played 22 minutes, hitting 3-of-6 shots and adding five rebounds and two assists. ... Shakur had six assists for the BayHawks, and Davis had three steals. ... The BayHawks are off today and visit Maine on Sunday in a 1 p.m. start.

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