The Back to Back ABA Champion Jacksonville Giants overtook the Birmingham Blitz tonight with a 31 point fourth quarter push. The Giants, who started off slow, ultimately survived Birmingham’s best effort by a score of 108-90. Leading scorer for the night was Anthony Jackson with 21 points to go along with 5 steals. Rookie, Elijah Smith, provided a spark with 12 points and 14 rebounds to highlight his home debut. Assistant coach David Graham called the win a, “gritty, grind-it-out type of win. This is the type of win that really shows our mental toughness.”
Prior to game time, the Giants presented last year’s National Championship team with their championship rings. Owner Ron Sholes then presented the fans with their second National Championship banner, which will hang in the rafters of Veteran’s Memorial Arena. The nearly 6,000 fan crowd, the largest attendance ever recorded for the Giants, consisting of City of Jacksonville employees, sailors for the USS Hue City, and over 600 Black Pages supporters, were more than pleased as they greeted their Giants with an overwhelming applause.
The Giants showed their love back to the fans in their normal fashion after the game by signing autographs in the lobby of the Veteran’s Memorial Arena, a tradition they will be carrying on all season. The Jacksonville Giants go on the road nextweek to Biloxi, Mississippi to take on the Gulf Coast Flash before returning home for their December 21st game against the South West Warriors at the Veteran’s Memorial Arena.
[googlemap src=”https://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&q=jacksonville+veterans+memorial+arena&fb=1&gl=us&hq=veterans+memorial+arena&cid=7726745750397966580&ei=CFYCU7eaE4aNkAfgpIDIDQ&ved=0CL4BEPwS” ]
Follow FOLIO!