Westchester Knicks Return to G League In-Season Championship

The home of the Magic Kingdom may be ready to conjure up more in-season glory for the New York Knicks’ G League group.

Damion Baugh (17 points, 13 rebounds) and Moses Brown (14 points, 11 rebounds) each had double-doubles while Donovan Williams scored 23 points as the Westchester Knicks earned a 113-108 over the Grand Rapids Gold in the G League Winter Showcase in Orlando on Saturday.

Westchester is the defending champion of the in-season event and will face Miami’s affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, in the title game on Sunday night (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2). It previously put a 127-119 win over the Valley Suns in Friday’s quarterfinals.

En route to its eighth straight victory, Westchester withstood a furious comeback effort from the Denver Nuggets’ prospects: their lead stretched to as high as 22 in the later stages of the third quarter, sustained primarily by the scoring efforts of Williams, a brief Atlanta Hawk who took over offensive affairs with Jacob Toppin sitting out.

Despite leading just once by a single point, Grand Rapids mounted its rally in the fourth, needing less than six to trim a 19-point lead down to a single possession. But the Knicks kept any and all subsequent attempts at a comeback well at bay with vocal responses: after the Gold cut the lead to three the first time, Landry Shamet put in a driving dunk off a feed from Chuma Okeke.

A three-point free throw from T.J. Warren as well as his fadeaway off another Okeke assist afforded Westchester solid distance from there on out, re-establishing a nine-point lead with just over three minutes left. In the midst of the short comeback, undrafted rookie Jahmir Young led all scorers with 28 points in defeat. Led by Baugh and Brown, the latter fresh off a brief stint with the NBA’s Indiana Pacers, Westchester also had a vital plus-11 advantage on the glass.

Shamet, attempting to work his way back to the NBA club after enduring a shoulder injury during the preseason, had 12 points off the bench, including 3-of-5 inside the arc. Knicks rookies Pacome Dadiet (7 points 3 rebounds) and Ariel Hukporti (8 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks) likewise appeared with the second unit which totaled 31 tallies.

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