Last night, former WVU guard Erik Stevenson had his best scoring performance since joined the San Antonio Spurs’ Summer League Roster.
In 29 minutes, Stevenson netted 23 points with seven rebounds, four assists, and a block in San Antonio’s 98-94 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
While Stevenson did not have his best shooting night when it comes to shooting percentage (7-23 from the field), the Lacey, Washington native was able to get the San Antonio offense started with a one-legged floater to net the game’s first points.
Stevenson connected on his first three-pointer of the night halfway through the first quarter with a swish from two steps beyond the arc.
Stevenson turned the offense up more in the second half, connecting on an open triple in the corner to extend the Spurs’ lead to 56-42 with just under 9:30 left in the third quarter.
With just over four minutes left in the third quarter, Stevenson knocked down a pull-up three-pointer off the dribble from the top of the key to extend the lead to 70-57 before drilling another triple to make it a 73-63 game with just under three minutes to play in the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the Thunder put a run on the Spurs, cutting the deficit to 82-81 with just over five minutes left to play before Stevenson made a key pass in traffic to Charles Bediako for a slam dunk to get the lead back up to three points.
After Oklahoma City took the lead at 86-84 with under 4:30 to play, Stevenson made another key pass to lead to the game-tying bucket by Sidy Cissoko.
Stevenson had one more winning play in him in the fourth quarter that did not involve putting the ball in the basket, as the former Mountaineer grabbed a huge offensive rebound in a 91-91 game with under 2:30 left to play. After the rebound, the Spurs connected on a three-pointer and held the late lead until the final buzzer, winning by the score of 98-94.
