Island Storm fall in overtime

Short-staffed squad loses by five to Saint John

Tyler Scott had a chance to tie it with two seconds left in overtime, but couldn’t get a deep three to drop Sunday afternoon as the Island Storm lost 107-102 to the Saint John Riptide.

“I thought that was good,” the Storm rookie said after the game. “Some fall, some don’t that’s the way the game goes sometimes.”

It ended a gutty performance for an undermanned Storm squad playing without starting point guard Andre Stringer (elbow), leading scorer Du’Vaughn Maxwell (lower body) and Brad States (ankle), a key forward off the bench. It was also the team’s third game in as many days after playing in Sydney, N.S., on Friday and Halifax on Saturday.

“We gave it everything we could,” Scott said. “It’s tough – three games back-to-back, travelling, getting home at 2:30 this morning, playing at 2 o’clock this afternoon, it’s tough.

“These guys competed and we gave it our all.”

The Storm fell behind early, but was able to claw back and went to the second quarter trailing 27-25. Saint John won the second quarter to take a 45-37 lead to the half. The Storm responded, cutting the deficit to three (72-69) heading to the fourth.

After Franklin Session made a layup to give the Storm an 88-87 lead, Scott stole the inbounds pass and hit a corner three to make it 91-87. It could have been the swing point of the game, but the Riptide refused to go away. Jeremiah Mordi made a couple of layups and Horace Wormley a trey to give the visitors a 95-93 lead. Kemy Osse tied it with a jumped with 1:07 left and each team missed a three-point shot to send the game to overtime. Gabe Freeman connected on a jumper with 1:03 left to give Saint John a 102-100 lead. He grabbed the rebound on Session’s missed three on the next possession and hit a jumper at the other end for the winning shot.

“I think we’re a tired group for sure,” head coach Tim Kendrick said.