GREAT FALLS — Following a 21-3 regular season — resulting in winning the Pacific Northwest division of The Basketball League — the Great Falls Electric are in the hunt for a league title in the franchise's second season.
On Wednesday, the Electric defeated first-round playoff opponent Seattle 127-114 on the road to steal game one of the best-of-three series.
"The job's not finished," Antwaan Cushingberry said Thursday. "We got another playoff game, and then we got to win six more after Friday. So hopefully we can get it done, you know keep coming together as a team, as teammates and brothers and finish the job."
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"That was the biggest game," Dexter Williams Jr. said. "That was the biggest game of the year, so we had to come in there, fight hard and just play."
Cushingberry and Williams have been key players for the Electric this whole season, but the team recently added former NBA player Robert Upshaw to the lineup.
It's no secret that the 7-foot Upshaw has been a difference maker, as Cushingberry, Williams and head coach Steve Keller said.
"We just got big Rob man, he's been amazing down low," Cushingberry said. "(Wednesday) he finished the game for us, and we need that."
"All our big guys are good, they're capable of giving us 20 and 10," Williams said. "Even having somebody like Rob coming off the bench it makes us even harder to beat."
"Seven-one post who can score down there, and that really helps us," Keller said. "Our bigs are more shoot-the-3 type, and they're good, but now we got a guy ... last night we got to him about four or five times in a row in crunch time and he scored every time."
Upshaw said the belief from his teammates helped him to surge toward the end of the game.
"(Seattle's) a really good team but we're the best," Upshaw said. "There's a reason why the team finished No. 1, and so we've just got to keep building on that. We've got to keep building on last night. This is going to be one of the toughest teams on our path, so once we get past them I think the odds are really good for us to get a championship."
All the guys know exactly what it will it take to do just that.
"We've got to continue to push through adversity, you know allow each other to make mistakes," Upshaw said. "Allow mistakes to happen and not get frustrated and lose focus on the game, and we'll be perfectly fine."
"Winning one game at a time," Cushingberry said. "That's what we're trying to do here. It's going to be tough, it's not going to be easy, but I think if we all come together like we are, and just, you know have the fans come out and support us, I think it'll be amazing."
"When you have so many talented players, the game rewards you," Williams said. "We just play the right way, and we'll know we'll end up with a winning result."
Great Falls looks to sweep Seattle on Friday night at 7 p.m. in Game 2 of the series, and the game will be played at the McLaughlin Center on the campus of the University of Providence. An if-necessary game three would be played Saturday night in Great Falls.
