FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 8, 2015
Contact:   Craig Fata, Vice President
(844) THE-MPBA / craig.fata@theMPBA.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Bloomington Flex find themselves in unfamiliar territory—territory, in fact, they’ve been in only one other time in their history: that’s with a losing record.

                    The last time the Flex opened the season with a loss was 2013, when they started out 0-2. But after that slow start, the team rebounded to win twelve of their next fourteen games, resulting in a second consecutive Premier Basketball League championship.

                    New Flex coach Carlnel Wiley isn’t looking that far ahead, but he says, despite the season-opening 113-109 loss to the St. Louis RiverSharks, there were lots of positives.

                    “We had the ball late with a chance to win the game,” Wiley said.  “And for only having four practices before that game, losing our starting point guard in the second half, and missing twenty free throws, to be right there at the end of the game against a good team is a sign that once you button some things up, you’ll be solid,” Wiley said.

                    Bloomington High School alum Justin Bocot led the Flex with 30 points against St. Louis, while former Illinois State standout Anthony Slack scored 18 points and pulled down 13 rebounds.

                    The Flex look to even their record against the Gateway Steam (1-1), who dropped the inaugural contest in the Midwest Professional Basketball Association to the RiverSharks 108-96 on Jan. 2.  Gateway then beat the Chicago Force 115-103 two days later.

                    Guards Brandon McGill and Jonathan Miller lead the Steam in scoring after two games, averaging 17.5 points per game each.  Swingman Terrell Williams leads the team in rebounding at 4.5 per game. 

                    The Steam feature a couple players with ties to Bloomington: forward Mike Gills played briefly for the Flex in 2012 when they were the Central Illinois Drive; and guard D’Mitri Riggs was an all-Pantagraph-Area player at B.H.S. in 2009.

                    Tickets are available by calling the U.S. Cellular Coliseum box office at (309) 434-2843, or by going to the Flex website at www.flexbasketball.com/schedule.

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