By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

It hasn’t been a good week for any team named magic.

Orlando’s version is staring at a 0-2 deficit in the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals.

Gwinnett, Ga.’s version – the Majic – drove about eight hours to Kissimmee Thursday, had a flat tire, arrived late, saw its coach tossed from the game with 30 seconds to play, and lost its World Basketball Association contest against the Florida Flight, 131-117, at the Kissimmee Civic Center.

A crowd of about 200 watched the Flight (2-1) win its second game in a row and move into a second-place tie with Gwinnett behind Jacksonville (3-0) in the WBA standings.

The Flight played at Jacksonville Friday and now take a two-week break before returning to the Civic Center June 4 for a game against Tuepelo, Miss., a team that has yet to play a game.

The Flight trailed much of the game, which started an hour and 13 minutes late, but behind guards Trevor Bing (29), Dwayne Foreman (21), Willie Irick (18)  and Lamont Houston (17), Florida outscored the Majic, 25-11, over the final five minutes.

Bing and Houston nailed a pair of three-pointers to give the Flight a nine-point margin, 120-111, and Houston hit another basket and two free throws to build an insurmountable 125-113 advantage with 1:08 to play.

Gwinnett Coach David Akin picked up his second technical foul with 30 seconds left for protesting a call and was ejected.

Florida Coach Levi Cobb said the two-week break is coming at an opportune time and will allow him to build cohesivness to a Florida roster that has had few opportunities to work together. The team dropped four players after an opening loss to Jacksonville May 11 and added Houston and forward Will Graham (9 points).

“A lot of the guys work and some have families, so you don’t have time to work a lot on (the players’) development,” he said. “The difficult thing is that you have players from varied backgrounds who have been coached differently, and you’re trying to put all that together in very little time. You have to evaluate their skills, and work from that, see how to make that work as a team. This (break) will give us a chance to build chemistry.”

Forward Sharrod Williams (8 points), who played high school basketball at Oak Ridge High, said the Flight is a mixture of young hopefuls who want to move farther up the pro basketball ladder, and players like himself who, at age 32, play for the love of the sport.

“Yeah, I just can’t get enough of it,” he said. “I knew Coach Cobb, and when he called I just couldn’t resist, even though I have three young boys. I just love to play the game.”

Center Yusuf Baker added 10 points for the Flight, who out-rebounded the Majic 39-26.

The Flight are scheduled to play six more home games at the Kissimmee Civic Center.

Gwinnett, the defending WBA champion, was led by guard Javon Randolph (30), the game’s high scorer, and forward B.J. Puckett (26).

Florida defeated the Franklin Knights, 110-105, Sunday for their first victory.

“We only had eight players for that game, it was a great effort from our guys,” Cobb said.

A game scheduled May 15 at Tupelo was postponed and will be rescheduled, Flight owner Mark King said.