R’Lions caught in Magic spell

Turnovers and a lack of trips to the foul line cost the visiting Niagara River Lions Wednesday night in National Basketball League of Canada action against the Moncton Magic.The River Lions committed 19 turnovers and only got to the charity stripe 24 times, compared to the Magic’s 44 trips, in a 112-104 loss.

The Lions fell to 8-10 with the defeat.

“Our turnovers led to bad decisions, and not getting to the freethrow line was just a matter of us not being physical,” River Lions head coach Joe Raso said.

Niagara roared out to an 11-4 lead and was up 29-20 after one quarter of play, but managed to score only 14 points in the second quarter and trailed 48-43 at the half.

Moncton increased its lead to 15 points in the third quarter, but Niagara battled back to take a 80-78 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Magic outscored the River Lions 34-24 over the final 12 minutes. Al Stewart recorded the triple-double for Moncton with 23 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists. Stewart was the only player on the floor to record double digits in both rebounds and assists.

“Giving them the amount of points we did was us not being physical enough and not being mentally strong enough,” Raso said. “Teams prowl on each basket, and we are our own worst enemy when it comes to that.”

Omar Strong led the Lions with 20 points, including 18 off six 3-pointers, while Marvell Waithe drained 18 points and pulled down eight rebounds.

Raso feels if the River Lions find the right rotation, and have the right mindset, defensively things will start to come around for his team.

“We need to somehow just commit to the defensive game,” he said. “That end of the floor we can control all of the time.

“We’ve got good plans, we’ve got good ideas and then we do it for short periods of time (in games) and then just stop. We’ve got to find a way to defend for 48 (minutes) and we’ve got a find a way to get mentally tough.”

Lion Pride: Every River Lion found the score sheet except Andravious Smith … Niagara did drain 15 three-pointers in the game on 38 attempts … Strong is now shooting a league best 52.4 per cent from beyond the arc, while Sam Muldrow is tied for tops in blocks per game with 2.3 … The Magic improved to 9-8 with the win.