Dallas 74, Philadelphia 73 (Round 1, Game 1)

Demons steal Game 1 at the horn

PHILADELPHIA—With his team looking like it would fall just short of a win, Dallas Demons forward Rogersauras Anderson corralled a full-court pass under his team’s basket with one time unit remaining in the game, turned and scored the game-winner over Tug Hershorts for a 74-73 upset triumph to open the Season 33 playoffs.

It was an incredible finish and an unlikely outcome, especially in view of the first-quarter dominance by the four-time defending champions, who led 22-11 after one. At that point it looked like the Phobia guard combination of Hall of Famer Cheetos Jones and Cock A. Doodledoo would be way too much for the visitors from the West.

But beginning in the second quarter, Dallas began to look like they belonged in this contest as they continually fed the 6-10 Adamson to attack the weakest Philadelphia defender, Tug Hershorts. And with Jones launching 14 treys and hitting just 4, Dallas worked their way all the way back and into 60-57 lead on a 3-point play from Adamson.

The Demons stretched the advantage to seven before Philadelphia recovered and regained the lead 71-70 on a 3-point shot by Jones with 14 time units left.

Nice try, Dallas, was the general feeling at this point, but Philly doesn’t rattle.

But (who else?) Adamson, playing the game of his index-card life, responded with a short jumper to put his team back in front 72-71 with 3 time units left.

Then with 2 time units remaining, Jones was fouled on a shot and went to the line for a pair of free throws. To that point, he was just 1 for 4 from the charity stripe, but the Hall of Famer showed his moxie by nailing both throws to give his team a 73-72 lead.

Then came the long pass, the shot by Adamson and the shocking win for the Demons, who now need to win just one of the next two games to eliminate Philadelphia in what would be an incredible turn of events.