Associated Press
CHARLOTTE ó Vince Carter scored 28 points and the New Jersey Nets pulled away in overtime to beat the Charlotte Bobcats 114-103 on Saturday night.
Devin Harris added 26 points, Jarvis Hayes 14 and Josh Boone 12 for the Nets, who lost to the Bobcats 95-87 in East Rutherford, N.J., just 24 hours earlier.
Gerald Wallace scored 32 points for the Bobcats, who rallied from an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter to tie it at 96 and force overtime.
Raja Bell added 18 points, Emeka Okafor had 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Raymond Felton scored 13 points for Charlotte.
However, Bell left the game with 3:20 remaining in the third quarter after he came up limping while battling for the ball under the Bobcats’ basket. Team officials said he strained his left groin.
Boone’s dunk, followed by Keyon Dooling’s 3-pointer, put the Nets ahead early in overtime, but Charlotte pulled within 101-99 on Okafor’s dunk with 2:55 remaining.
However, Dooling hit a short jumper, followed by Hayes’ 3-pointer, to kick off an 11-2 run that put New Jersey up 112-101 with 52 seconds left, its biggest lead of the game.
New Jersey trailed by 10 points midway through the second quarter, but rallied to tie it at 47 at halftime.
The Nets then pulled ahead in the second half, going up 77-69 on Trenton Hassell’s
3-pointer with 9:56 left in the fourth quarter. The Bobcats fought back to briefly lead, going up 87-85 on Wallace’s three-point play with 5:12 left.
After tying the score twice, New Jersey pulled ahead 96-93 with 31 seconds remaining on a pair free throws by Hayes, but Felton’s three-point play 5 seconds later tied it 96.
Charlotte, which had won four of its last five games, had a tougher time with the Nets in Saturday’s game, swapping the lead six times and tying the score twice in the first quarter alone.
The Bobcats extended their lead to 10 points midway through the second quarter, with Nazr Mohammed’s layup with 7:59 left putting them ahead 37-27. But New Jersey went on a 12-2 run, capped by Carter’s 3-pointer, to tie it at 39 with 3:27 remaining.
Bell nailed a 3-pointer with 23 seconds remaining to make it 47-all at the break.