After starting the season with two straight losses the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Steamers professional basketball team has won three in a row. They try to make it four this Saturday January 21st on the road in West Virginia against the Charleston Gunners.
Professional basketball hit the hardcourt in January inside the Lackawanna College Student Union Center. The newest franchise in the Premier basketball league is the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Steamers. Players from around the country make up the team for co-head coaches John Bucci and Dennis Mishko. Chris Commons is the 6-8 star forward from South Carolina Aiken.
"We're playing with energy. There's only 24 seconds on the shot clock. 8 seconds to get across half court. So everything we have to do must be precise, fast, and we got to execute it. Right now the way our offense is going guys are getting to the right spots. We're finding each other. Feeling each other out knowing which shots guys like. Everything is starting to come together right now." said Chris Commons.
Last year Darrion Griffin started his professional basketball career with the Dayton Air Strikers, another team in the Premier basketball league, and in year two he landed here in Scranton.
"It's a definite blessing just to continue your career. Just continue to play after college. It's just a blessing for me to be able to play work on things that I need to work on to get to the next level." said Darrion Griffin.
In this Premier basketball league if you want to get to the next level it's all about scoring and the 3 main guys for the Steamers-Vincent Simpson, Rob Robinson, and Chris Commons have combined to put in 63 points per game. That's allowed the team to go on a 3 game winning streark.
"Everybody wants to move up no matter how old or how bad our bodies got. We want to move up. I've played quite a bit everywhere. I'm in this league to offer leadership to my teammates. Give them guidance. Help them get to where i've been and also further my professional career." again said Chris.
The Steamers play home games at the Lackawanna College Student Union Center thourghout the month of January and February. Their next home game is Saturday January 28th 2012 against Dayton at 2pm.