Murray leads Explosion blow out of Chinese team

Published 11:15 pm Saturday, June 21, 2008

MONROE — Snohomish County Explosion fans hoping to catch their first glimpse of Donald Watts, Justin Murray and Rashaad Powell playing together in 2008 will have to wait a little while longer.

Watts and Murray were unavailable Saturday night, but it mattered little as Powell and the Explosion wrapped up their regular-season home schedule by overwhelming the Shanxi Zhongyu 141-99 in an International Basketball League game at Monroe High School.

Snohomish County (13-9) has a road contest against the Olympia Reign on Tuesday before returning to Monroe to host the three-day Western Conference tournament, which starts Friday.

With Watts out due to illness and Murray recovering from a chest injury suffered at practice Friday, Powell — in just his second game since returning with Murray after playing for three months in the United Arab Emirates — was dominant in his 2008 home debut.

Powell delighted the home crowd — and negated the absence of Watts and Murray, who are expected to return for the conference tourney — by just missing a triple-double. He had a game-high 29 points that went nicely with 10 assists and eight rebounds.

“I’m nothing special,” Powell said. “It’s just great to be back playing in front of our fans, who have always given us so much love.”

“That’s about an average game for (Powell),” Snohomish County coach Randy Redwine said with a laugh. “With him and Murray, people will see a different team.”

Shanxi (1-12) was led by Kevin Tyner who finished with 22 points and seven rebounds. Yu Tao added 16 points and seven boards for the Zhongyu, who have stayed at the United States Basketball Academy, near Eugene (Ore.), since arriving from China six weeks ago.

Point guard Jamal Miller had 25 points and 11 assists for the Explosion while Alex Adediran added 21 points. Snohomish County dominated the boards, holding a 57-38 rebounding edge.

A trio of 3-pointers and the inside work of Tao, sparked the Zhongyu to a surprising 17-8 lead midway through the first quarter. Chris Keller (13 points) came off the bench and knocked down a trio of treys to highlight the Explosion’s 19-4 run over the next five minutes that resulted in a 27-21 lead with just over a minute remaining in the period.

Tempers flared in the second quarter.

Adediran took exception to a hard foul by Shanxi’s Pan Jiang and retaliated with an elbow that caught Jiang in the eye and drew a technical. At the end of the first half that ended with Snohomish County in command 67-44, the Explosion’s Chris Weakley jawed with Shanxi’s Zhang Xue Wen — who had already been assessed a technical earlier in the second quarter — over hard contact on his shot at the buzzer.

As officials scrambled to calm players from both teams, Weakley did his part, smiling broadly and signaling all was apparently forgiven as he walked away.

At Monroe H.S.

Shanxi22222926— 99

Snohomish County30373242—141

Shanxi — Chun Lei 18, Tyner 22, Jin Shuai 17 , Xue Lin 0, Xue Wen 4, Ming Gang 5, Tao 16, Gou Qiang 6, Jiang 11. Snohomish County — James 9, Miller 25, Powell 29, Adediran 21, Gwynn 11, Weakley 14, Boyle 0, Keller 13, Jones 4, J. White 8, D. White 7. 3-point goals — Tao 1, Jin Shuai 3, Tyner 2, Miller 4, Weakley 4, Keller 3, Powell 2. Records — Shanxi 1-12. Snohomish County. 13-9. Attendance — 824.