Long Island Nets hold off Raptors 905 for key road win

The Long Island Nets never trailed Saturday en route to a key 114-106 victory over Raptors 905 at Paramount Fine Foods Center in Mississauga, Canada.

Rookie Dzanan Musa led three Long Island Nets who scored at least 20 points Saturday in a wire-to-wire 114-106 road win over Raptors 905 at Paramount Fine Foods Center in Mississauga, Canada.

The win pulls Long Island (23-14) back to within a game of the Eastern Conference-leading Lakeland Magic (25-14), who lost Friday night at home to the Salt Lake City Stars, 112-107.

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With the loss, Raptors 905 (23-16) fell into a third-place virtual tie in the East with the Westchester Knicks (24-17), two games behind Lakeland.

The Nets didn’t shoot well early, but their defense stymied 905 into just 27.3 percent shooting in the first quarter (6-for-22) as Long Island built a 26-19 lead. They pushed the edge in the second period, leading by as much as 17 as Musa and Theo Pinson each scored 10 points in the quarter.

Long Island led 58-46 at the break. In the fourth quarter, the closest the Raptors could get was to within six points with 18.9 seconds left, but Musa hit a pair of free throws with 18.1 ticks on the clock to ice it.

The Nets shot 47.9 percent (45-for-94) on the afternoon, hitting 8-of-24 (33.3 percent) from 3-point range. They held a 50-49 edge on the glass, but a 19-9 advantage in second-chance points, while outscoring 905 in the paint 72-48.

The Raptors had 19 turnovers, leading to 23 Long Island points, while the Nets’ 18 miscues led to just 15 points. They shot just 38.9 percent (37-for-95) and hit 10-of-32 from deep (31.2 percent).

Musa, on assignment from the parent Brooklyn Nets, scored 25 points on 9-of-18 shooting in 35 minutes.

Pinson, a two-way player with Brooklyn, added 24 points on 10-of-20 shooting in 35 minutes, while Alan Williams, the other two-way player on the club, had 21 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks in 30 minutes of action, hitting 9-of-15 from the floor.

Kamari Murphy added 11 rebounds, three steals and three blocks for the Nets, Jordan McLaughlin had 13 points, six assists and four steals and Will Davis, in just his second game with the club, had a pair of blocks.

Jordan Loyd, on a two-way contract with 905’s parent Toronto Raptors, scored 32 points. Chris Boucher, on assignment from Toronto, added 26 points, 14 rebounds, three steals and five blocks.

Jordan Howard had 14 points and six assist, Malcolm Miller — also on assignment from the parent Raptors — had 10 points and two blocks and Derek Cooke blocked two shots.

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Long Island returns home to complete a back-to-back Sunday when they host the Memphis Hustle (21-17) at Nassau Coliseum for a 3 p.m. Eastern tip. The Hustle last played Wednesday at home, where they beat Salt Lake City 122-119 in overtime.