Edge fall short of catching Lightning in a bottle
Even without Royce White in the London Lightning lineup, the St. John’s Edge couldn’t find a way to extend their secondround National Basketball League of Canada playoff series Sunday evening.
The expansion Edge were ousted from post season play with a 106-101 loss to the defending champion Lightning at London’s Budweiser Gardens.
London took the best-ofseven series 4-2 to win their third Central Division championship.
The Lightning now face the Halifax Hurricanes for the league championship starting next weekend.
“As dysfunctional as they are,” said Edge coach Jeff Dunlap of the Lightning, “and with all their sideline drama, that’s a collection of players over there who know how to win.
“They have another gear to which they can bring their game that other teams don’t have. And when they get it there, they can sustain it.”
The dysfunctionality Dunlap was talking about begins and ends with White, the 2017-18 NBL Canada scoring champ and a former league MVP who made all kinds of news last week when the Lightning were in town for Games 3, 4 and 5 of the series.
It started last Saturday night, in Game 3 which London won 101-86, when a number of fans accused White of having used foul language, and launching homophobic slurs at people seated near the London bench.
White, in turn, later issued a statement denying the allegations, saying fans had harassed him about mental issues — he has been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.
NBL Canada deputy commissioner Audley Stephenson called it a, “he said, she said” situation, and as a result, the league did not hand out any discipline.
On Thursday night, a 130-127 London win, putting the Lightning ahead 3-2 in the best-ofseven series, White was drawing all sorts of attention again, and not just from the Edge defence, which was trying to contain the 27-year-old Minnesotan.
After fouling out with about four minutes to go in regulation time, White engaged in a onesided, finger-pointing diatribe with Stephenson behind the Lightning bench.
Friday, Stephenson put the hammer down on White, suspending the former NBA firstround draft pick 11 games, ending his 2017-18 season. It’s the fifth time White’s been suspended this year.
So it goes without saying the Edge’s game plan changed dramatically as result of the White suspension. A liability on defence, White certainly produced at the other end of the court, witness his 37 points, nine assists and four rebounds Thursday night, likely his final game in a London jersey and probably his last in the NBL Canada.
“Our game plan changed,” said Dunlap, “because we knew they were arguably better without him, as a cohesive team. Sure, he had big numbers, but they didn’t collectively balance out.
“We knew our defence would be different because it was schemed on how to take the ball out of his hands. So we let that scheme go, and got back to regular basketball.”
The Edge and Lightning went basket for basket for much of the game, with London holding a six-point lead at the half (4640), but St. John’s led 76-75 after three quarters.
Trailing 96-94 with 90 seconds remaining in regulation time, the Edge suffered a big blow when post Ryan Reid fouled out. St. John’s tried to reclaim the lead, but fell short.
Six players — including all five starters — scored in double figures for the Lightning, who were led by Garrett Williamson with 25.
English was the top scorer for St. John’s with 21 points, to go with 11 rebounds. Reid and Charles Hinkle both scored 14 points.