Thunder close out regular season Friday and Saturday

BERNALILLO — The Basketball League’s Santa Ana Thunder play their final two games of their debut season at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Bernalillo High School.

The Thunder (7-11), who lost two of their three road games last week, face the Wichita Sky Kings (5-13) both nights. The Thunder and Sky Kings split two earlier meetings in Wichita.

Santa Ana is in fifth place of TBL’s seven-team Central Division, while Wichita is in sixth place.

Here’s what happened on the road last week:

Texas 7ers 123, Thunder 106: In this May 16 battle, the Thunder found themselves trailing by as many as 24 points in the first half and down 65-43 at intermission but never quit.

The deficit was reduced to 12 in the third quarter, when former Cleveland High standout Ryan Jones contributed some key baskets, and then a late rally in the fourth quarter got Santa Ana as close as six, 98-92.

Powell paced the Thunder with 21 points, Josh Jones had 20, Bradford and Ryan Jones had 14 apiece, and Victor Wariso added 10.

The Thunder were 5 of 21 shooting 3s, but the 7ers were more than twice as good from long distance, canning 13 of 29, a difference of 24 points.

Shreveport-Bossier 93, Thunder 87: Santa Ana and the Mavericks battled throughout this May 17 contest, which the Thunder led, 81-80, with 3:29 left in regulation.

In the time that was left, the Mavericks closed out their third win in four meetings with the Thunder on a 13-6 run.

Charles Bradford led the Thunder with 35 points, but only one other player finished with double figures: Ty Sean Powell had 19.

A big difference in the game was the difference in shooting from behind the arc, where Shreveport-Bossier was 9 of 42 while the Thunder made only 2 of 16 attempts, a swing of 21 points.

Thunder 106, Little Rock 97: In the lone road win on May 19, stats were not available by press time.