Jam stays perfect in December with 124-95 victory
| Friday, Dec 10 2010 11:58 PM
Last Updated Friday, Dec 10 2010 11:58 PM
You don't have to tell the Bakersfield Jam that December is the most wonderful time of the year.
And not for all the Christmas carol type reasons.
By continuing to play its all-around best basketball of the season, the Jam improved to 4-0 during the month with a 124-95 throttling of the Dakota Wizards Friday night at the Jam Events Center.
"Our guys did such a great job just executing our game plan completely," Jam coach Will Voigt said.
Five players scored in double figures for the Jam including Trey Johnson, who once again led the way with 27 points.
Brandon Wallace and Marqus Blakely had 20 points apiece followed by Stephen Dennis with 12.
The 29-point margin of victory matches Bakersfield's largest of the season.
The Jam wasted little time jumping all over Dakota, which dropped its fourth straight game.
Johnson, the D-League's scoring leader coming into the night, got the Jam rolling early. The 6-foot-5 guard scored the team's first nine points with an array of driving layups and outside jumpers including a 3-pointer from the left wing to put the Jam up 7-4 with 9:15 remaining in the first quarter.
From there the lead snowballed as Bakersfield's aggressive man-to-man defense completely shut down a Wizards team that shot 35-percent from the floor during both the first and second quarters.
"We knew that they're a better team than their record shows," Johnson said. "We didn't want to give them any confidence from the door. So I came out real aggressive, wanted to let them know that we are a good team. We wanted to keep them down while they were down."
Blakely made two free throws and then a monster two-handed dunk off a nice feed from Dennis to close out the opening quarter with the Jam up 32-17.
"That's about as a good a first quarter as you can do," Voigt said. "They followed through with everything we talked about with our defensive schemes and offensive schemes. It was great to see."
The Jam (5-4) continued to pour it on in the second quarter behind the scoring of Wallace, who had two dunks and a 3-pointer during a one minute and 14 second stretch late in the second quarter. His three from the left wing extended the Jam lead to 58-33 with 3:08 remaining in the first half.
By halftime the Bakersfield was up 69-41.
Early in the third quarter Wallace gave the Jam its biggest lead of the night, 84-43, with a 3-pointer from the right wing.
Wallace finished 8-of-11 from the field and 4-of-6 from beyond the arc.
Johnson made 10 of his 17 shot attempts including 3 of 5 3-pointers.
"He's the best player in this league," Voigt said of Johnson. "It's not even close. Every single night this guy delivers."
Earlier in the day the Jam added 6-foot-6 guard/forward D' Andre Bell to its roster. Bell, was selected with the 40th pick of the 2010 D-League draft by Utah before being traded to Bakersfield in November. However, due to an undisclosed medical condition the former Georgia Tech standout was just recently cleared to play.
Bell played 12 minutes on Friday and had 8 points.
