RGV Capsules: Vipers set to take on Fort Wayne
Buoyed by the biggest win in club history, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers take to the road for back-to-back games at Fort Wayne today and Springfield on Wednesday and then head into the NBA D-League’s All Star break.
The Vipers (22-8) hope this road excursion goes better than the last one in which they lost two of three at Albuquerque last week. The Vipers face Fort Wayne and Springfield for the first time this season.
“We got two new opponents so our prep work is going to be high, obviously, because we have a back-to-back and have to fly in between,” Vipers coach Chris Finch said. “We can only worry about those things we can control and be ready to play.”
The Vipers' roster has shifted since Saturday. Guard Garrett Temple was called up to the Houston Rockets on Monday. Guard Will Conroy, whose 10-day contract with the Rockets expired Monday, has returned to the Vipers and will join the team on the road trip. In addition on Monday, the Vipers signed guard Russell Carter, who began the season with Austin.
The Vipers own the best record in the Western Conference. Fort Wayne and Springfield occupy the bottom two spots in the Eastern Conference.
“It’s important for us to finish the pre-all star break strong,” Finch said. “We want to give ourselves as big a cushion as we can for the second half of the season.”
The Vipers should have plenty of momentum. They blasted Reno 109-76 at home Saturday in what was the largest margin of victory in team history. The 22 wins is the most ever in one season for the Vipers. The victory also erased an ugly stretch of two games in which the Vipers basically stunk in up in their final two games in New Mexico.
“That’s behind us,” said Vipers’ forward Julian Sensley, who scored a season-high 22 points on Saturday. “That’s the good thing about this league. We’re moving forward. Our goal is to win a championship and each game is preparing us to get to that point. We’ll be fine. Those two losses we had in Albuquerque are long gone.”
Most of the Vipers will return to the Valley following Wednesday’s game except for Mike Harris and Antonio Anderson, who were selected to the NBA D-League All Star Game, which will be held Saturday in Dallas. Finch and his staff will coach the Western Conference all stars.
Following Wednesday’s game, the Vipers don’t play again until Feb. 20 when they start a back-to-back against Maine. That starts a four-game home stand. They’ll also face Springfield on Feb. 26 and Bakersfield on Feb. 28.
David Hinojosa covers the Rio Grande Valley Vipers for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can also reach him at (956) 683-4442 or via e-mail at dhinojosa@themonitor.com.
Hockey
Deadline passes without Bees making trade
HIDALGO – With Monday’s 3 p.m. trading deadline looming, Killer Bees coach Chris Brooks said he talked to every team in the league. Yes, even Terry Ruskowski and the Laredo Bucks.
But like his talks with the Bucks, his discussions with the rest of the CHL didn’t lead to any trades before the deadline to complement last Wednesday’s acquisition of defenseman Andrew Davis from Missouri in exchange for rookie Mike Harr. In fact, with 13 of the league’s 15 teams having realistic playoff aspirations, Monday’s deadline day was quiet as only three other trades were made.
“A lot of the talk and chatter wasn’t apples for apples. It was apples for oranges-type things,” Brooks said. “I had some teams that had tough housing situations where they couldn’t make deals because of housing or they couldn’t make deals because of injuries.”
Brooks said there were “probably six teams that were actively” looking to make moves before Monday’s deadline but he couldn’t come to an agreement with any of them. He said there were players on his team who did attract interest from others but declined to name them, with Brooks saying he didn’t think he would have been getting equal value in return.
The two transactions that didn’t involve future considerations – Bossier-Shreveport acquiring all-star defenseman Jim Jorgensen and the rights to Jason Deleurme from Wichita for forward Neil Clark and Mississippi swapping forward Matt Pierce for Texas’ Elias Godoy – were ones that included players Brooks asked about.
“If I could have made us better, I would have made us better,” Brooks said. “I’m not going to make a trade just to make a trade. I’m not going to take a hit to make a trade. All the talks that I had with the teams I talked with, I felt that I was going to take a hit in a trade. That’s not the purpose of making deals.
“The purpose of making deals is to make your team better. And I wasn’t able to do that.”
With the deadline come and gone, Brooks will need to sign free agents to improve the Bees, who find themselves in a four-team race for two playoff spots. At 19-19-7 and struggling to both win on the road and hold onto third-period leads, Brooks said his efforts to bolster the lineup didn’t end at 3 p.m. Monday.
“There’s going to be a lot of movement in this league as teams get healthy. In any way we can improve as we move forward we will improve,” Brooks said. “It was an interesting day as it progressed.”
Brian Sandalow covers the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4436 or via e-mail at bsandalow@themonitor.com.
