One intense match
Basketball Storm meets Moncton Sunday and these clubs don’t like one another
The pro basketball Island Storm meet arch-rival Moncton Miracle and ex-Storm coach Joe Salerno Sunday at 2 p.m. at Eastlink Arena in what likely will be a very intense National Basketball League of Canada contest.
Neither of these two clubs like one another and the fact that Moncton’s top players Terry Thomas, Al Stewart and Tirrell Baines played here last season before jumping to Moncton in the off-season bumps up the heat level.
Already this early in the season, each has beaten the other at home so Sunday’s game may decide the top seed when the playoffs roll around next spring.
The Storm has been impressive in the early going and although their record is 1-2 heading into this weekend, they could be 2-1, losing their home opener and a heartbreaker to St. John’s on a buzzer-beater in the final seconds. They have plenty of talent with standouts like Franklin Session (aka Nitty), Chris Johnson, Andre Stringer, Du’Vaughn Maxwell and ex-Panther all-Canadian Tyler Scott.
Their big centre, seven-footone Ash Dixon-Tatum was recalled to the D League but Zach Valliere and Brad States did a fine job filling his role. Newcomer Marcus Bell, at six-foot-nine, 235 pounds will likely play Sunday and it will be interesting to see how many minutes he plays. Head coach Tim Kendrick has done a nice job putting the pieces of this club together and when they all bring their A game this club will challenge for divisional honours. Game time Sunday is 2 p.m.
University sports
On the UPEI sports front, the injury riddled men’s hockey club finish their first half with a game at Saint Mary’s tonight and I doubt they can handle SMU in Halifax. The puck Panthers, 4-11-1 before the trip to Nova Scotia, have a save percentage of a meagre .847 and unless Santa drops off a couple of defenders, the Panthers will stay among the also-rans and battle Dal and Moncton for that last playoff spot. The women’s Panthers are near the bottom of their conference with a 3-6-5 record at the half-way mark and I noticed head coach Bruce Donaldson at the airport the other night picking up a couple of new hockey recruits. Let’s hope they can make a big difference over the second half.
On the basketball front, all is not well. The UPEI men are 0-7, losing a couple by more than 50 points while the women are 2-5 after seven games. Men’s head coach Darrell Glenn joined the Panthers late and had little time
to recruit and fill huge holes left by the departure of Tyler Scott and Dut Dut who are now in the pro ranks. The women are a little behind where we thought they would be but in their last outing, a loss to Acadia, they collectively shot less than 30 per cent from the floor, which usually results in a loss at any level. Look for this team to have a big second half.
Let’s hope help is on the way for the four major winter UPEI sports teams or it could be a long, dismal season.
Final goodbye
The Island sports scene endured a very tough past week with the passing of three individuals who contributed greatly to the Island’s sports history.
Gary “Prunes” Campbell, who starred in hockey with the Sherwood-Parkdale Metros and in the city fastball league with Tack Room when that league was in its prime, passed away a little more than two weeks after he had been diagnosed with cancer.
Veteran fastball player and coach Eddy Power, who fought cancer for about 12 years, died midweek as did Summerside native Fred Ripley who starred in football and basketball at St. Dunstan’s in the early 1960s. Our condolences to all connected
to these three wonderful people.
On the track
Local harness racing continues this afternoon and Sunday afternoon at the city track. Post time today and Sunday is 12:30 p.m.
The feature on the Saturday card goes for $2,250 in Race 11 with Weather Hanover, Heart and Soul, Silverinyourpocket, Goliath Bayama, Painted Desert and The Big Bite. The Sunday card is a dandy with two classes at $2,000 and a $2,500 top class featuring Adkins Hanover on the assigned outside Post 8 and Rose Run Quest at the rail and six good ones between them.
The Open House at Tomiko Training Centre, Campbellville, Ont., attracted more than 400 fans as The Stable.ca event where 58 yearlings were on display. The show, hosted by Ben Wallace and myself, attracted more than 4,800 viewers from around the world and many were part owners. Prominent owner Adriano Sorella picked up the tab for food and drinks during the four-hour event and also purchased significant shares in various horses. It looked like Old Home Week there as trainers Harry Poulton, Ricky MacPhee, Danny O’Brien and Kevin MacMaster as well as Johnny MacKinnon and Georgia Dalziel (Wally’s wife) gave the show a Maritime flavour.
At Woodbine tonight, the Ben Wallace-trained Easy Lover Hanover is picked to win versus the $34,000 top class against Nirvana Seelster and four others.
At Yonkers, New York, tonight, Bob Skinner’s The Rev has Post 2 in the $40,000 feature. The Maritime top class horse has banked $172,600 already this season.
Elektra Express was third, beaten a neck in a $22,000 event last Monday for MM, the mile in 1:54.2, the last quarter in a swift 28.2, her best trip since moving to New York.
Mark MacDonald scored a major victory at The Meadowlands last Saturday night with Pure Country as the mare won the $175,000 TVG final in 1:49. The win may have clinched divisional honours as she has won the Lady Liberty, the Breeders Crown and the TVG.
James MacDonald is not at Woodbine for the next week as he is competing in Perth, Australia, with American Marcus Miller against Australia and new Zealand drivers.