Felton's career-high 31 lead Bobcats in OT

INDIANAPOLIS(AP) Raymond Felton made sure the Charlotte Bobcats earned their first road victory of the season.Felton
tied a career high with 31 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter
and overtime, and the Bobcats beat the Indiana Pacers 115-108 on Friday
night.Charlotte (5-10) had lost its first four road games under new coach Larry Brown."It's important for us to get any kind of win,'' Brown said. "A win on the road, though, is really important.''Felton, who finished 11-of-21 from the field and added seven assists, has seen the Bobcats improve every game under Brown."We're
getting better, I can say that,'' Felton said. "We're getting better
with the system, what coach wants us to do. I think we're going to be
all right."We beat a good team tonight at home, so it shows
we're getting better. It takes some time to get used to a system and a
new coach, but we have a lot of talent here.''The Bobcats scored
the first seven points of overtime, including consecutive 3-pointers by
Felton and rookie D.J. Augustin. Indiana cut the deficit to 108-105 on
T.J. Ford's two free throws with 47 seconds left, but Felton's jumper
pushed the lead back to five."Raymond won that game for us
tonight,'' said Charlotte guard Jason Richardson, who added 21 points
in his first game back from knee surgery. "He got the game ball.''Augustin
had 17 points, Gerald Wallace added 16 points and 11 rebounds, and
Emeka Okafor finished with 14 points and 20 rebounds for the Bobcats,
who won for just the second time in their past seven games."This
could be a great springboard for us,'' Richardson said. "We've been
playing good, but the end results haven't been wins. It's good to
finally get one.''Danny Granger scored a season-high 35 points,
and Marquis Daniels and Ford each had 20 for the Pacers (6-9), who lost
their third home game by seven points or less."We must put this behind us and string some (victories) together,'' Daniels said. "This is no fun.''After
trailing by as many as 14 points in the first half and 93-90 with 5
minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Pacers took a 97-95 lead on
Troy Murphy's 3-pointer with 39 seconds remaining in regulation.Charlotte
tied it at 97 on Okafor's layup, and following baskets by both teams,
the Pacers had a chance to win in the closing seconds, but Granger's
jumper over a leaping Okafor was no good."That's exactly what we
wanted,'' Pacers coach Jim O'Brien said. "We got the switch on Okafor
and he (Granger) got a good shot. It just didn't go down.''The
Bobcats took their biggest lead, 37-23, on Nazr Mohammed's layup with
8:42 left in the second quarter. Indiana answered with a 17-6 run,
capped by Daniels' driving layup, to make it 43-40. The Pacers trailed
53-48 at the half.Indiana tied it three times in the third
quarter before taking a 71-70 lead on Brandon Rush's 3-pointer with 3
minutes left. Murphy's layup gave the Pacers an 81-75 advantage later
in the period."We dug ourselves a big hole, got out of it ... but once again couldn't close it out,'' Ford said.Notes:
Richardson started after missing the past seven games. He underwent an
exploratory arthroscopic procedure Nov. 12 after suffering from right
knee inflammation. ... Pacers G Mike Dunleavy (right knee) missed the
game and has yet to play this season. ... Brown was coach of the Pacers
from 1993-97, finishing with a 190-138 record. Current Indiana
assistant Lester Conner played for Brown during the 1993-94 season. ...
Granger entered the game eighth in the NBA at 23.2 points per game.