Hornets Sting 76ers

After missing his first 10 shots, Eddie Jones made sure that trend didn't continue in the second half.

Jones and Derrick Coleman each scored 23 points Thursday night as the Charlotte Hornets beat the Philadelphia 76ers 109-100.

Jones got his first basket on a dunk with 6:46 left in the third quarter that ignited a 27-9 run for Charlotte.

"If I don't have a very good first half, I'm going to come out in the third quarter and try real hard to make things happen."

Jones contributed 10 points in the decisive third period, and David Wesley added 11.

Wesley finished with 15 points as the Hornets won their third straight following seven consecutive losses. Ricky Davis added 13 points for the Hornets, while Anthony Mason and Elden Campbell had 10 each.

Allen Iverson scored 35 points as Philadelphia's winning streak ended at four. Philadelphia also got 17 points from Tyrone Hill, 16 from George Lynch and 13 from reserve guard Larry Hughes.

Iverson nailed a 3-pointer from the left wing to reduce Charlotte's lead to 69-65 with 3:12 left in the third quarter, but it was the Sixers' last field goal of the period.

The Hornets followed with a 13-0 run that ended with Brad Miller's layup with 48.8 seconds left in the quarter. During a timeout with 2:03 left, Philadelphia coach Larry Brown punctuated the Charlotte run with two technical fouls and was then ejected.

The Hornets then withstood a frenetic fourth-quarter rally that brought Philadelphia within 103-98 before Jones iced the game with a dunk with 33.7 seconds left.

"They just jumped on us," Iverson said. "We had a bad third period. We could have packed it in when we were down 19. We tried to come back, but we couldn't catch a break."

Philadelphia led by as many as nine points in the opening quarter on 16 points from Iverson, but Coleman kept the Hornets within striking distance with 13 points of his own in the period.

Philadelphia tied the game at 47 on Eric Snow's layup at the two-minute mark and led 49-47 at the break on Iverson's runner with 8.7 seconds left.

Charlotte got 13 of its 23 second-quarter points at the free-throw line.

"The keys were going inside, getting to the line and playing defense," Mason said. "We got away from that in the fourth quarter, but we held on. When we have a team down, we have to be able to put them to sleep."

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