South Bay Lakers Bounce Back Against G League Ignite

The South Bay Lakers played their fourteenth game of the regular season against the G League Ignite as they won, 117-109, on Saturday night. Cole Swider led the Lakers (9-5) in scoring with 25 points, a career high. John Jenkins paced the Ignite (6-9), scoring 27 points.

The Ignite got off to a hot start behind guard John Jenkins, establishing an early 17-9 lead. South Bay fought their way back. Cole Swider started off hot, scoring 11 in the first quarter. South Bay trailed 26-31 after one. A similar story played out in the second frame, as they Ignite stretched out their lead to double digits. After a John Jenkins four-point play saw the lead go up to 13, South Bay responded with a 12-3 run to close the quarter. The Lakers trailed by just four, 58-62 at the half. Swider and Jenkins continued to lead the way for both squads with 17 and 18 points respectively.

Quarter three saw both teams continue to trade buckets until South Bay made a run near the end of the period to establish their biggest lead of the game, nine. The Lakers had four players score five or more in the quarter and held the Ignite to just 18 in the period, their third best defensive quarter of the year. The Lakers took an 89-80 advantage into the final period.

L.A. continued to build on that rhythm they had found near the end of the first half. Through the first four minutes of the quarter, the Lakers had only missed one of their seven shots while stretching their lead out to 13 points. With three minutes remaining, the Ignite had cut the lead down to seven. However, the Lakers rallied once more to put the game to bed for good, 119-107.

Swider put together a final line of 25 points on five made threes. Shaq Harrison contributed 21 points and 11 dimes. Javante McCoy and Cameron Oliver provided a nice boost of the bench, putting up 19 and 16 points respectively. John Jenkins led the way for the Ignite, scoring 27 points. Eric Mika scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.

South Bay is right back at it tomorrow night against the Ontario Clippers at 3:00pm from Toyota Arena.