Fort Wayne 'Mad Ants' - NBA Development League Opening Weekend

The Fort Wayne Mad Ants are the newest NBA Development League team. The Fort Wayne D-League is the first minor league basketball team to play in Fort Wayne since the Fort Wayne Fury. The 'Mad Ants' home games are held at The Allen County Memorial War Coliseum.

The Mad Ants kicked off there opening season this weekend with games both Friday and Sunday nights.

Before starting the game No. 11 Earl Calloway came out to thank all the fans for showing up in support of the 'Mad Ants' this was very thoughtful and unexpected and really showed the fans how much this team wants to be part of the community.

Sunday night game got off to a good start with Larry Tuner No. 34 scoring a 2 pt. shot in less than a minute into the games opener. Going into the second half the score was ' Mad Ants' 35 and 'T- Birds' 58. The 'Ant's put up a good fight against the Albuquerque Thunder Birds but in the end 'Mad Ant' fans were left with broken hearts with a final score of 'Ants' 79 and 'T- Birds' 98. Even with the heart breaking final score, residents of Fort Wayne are left with hope on the horizon. The 'Mad Ants' are bringing basketball back to the 'Fort'!

As they say "you cant win them all, but you can sure have fun playing" - or watching in this case. The Mad Ants game was extremely entertaining for fans. The mascot ' The Mad Ant' an disproportionately 'buff Ant' was full of energy and great fun to watch with his crazy 'ANTtics'. A kids slam dunk contest after the first period and T-shirts being thrown into the stands helped keep the the fans feeling like they were part of the game. Half time consisted of an performance by the 'Russian Bar' group that astounded fans with their balance beam act. A 5 pt. shoot out in the 3rd pd. and various other performance by the 'Madame Ants' cheerleader team kept fans entertained between periods.