Titans succumb to Express in playoff preview
KITCHENER — The fact-finding mission is complete.
The Kitchener-Waterloo Titans endured their 22nd loss of their inaugural campaign, a 103-97 defeat to the Windsor Express, in their 40-game regularseason finale on Saturday night.
But the street value of that National Basketball League of Canada decision will be determined when the two teams square off for their impending playoff series, a best-of-five affair, which opens Friday in Lakeshore, Ont.
Playoff experience is in short supply for the expansion Titans. So the club needed Saturday’s dry run, its first head-to-head meeting with Windsor since March 25, to test a few theories.
And this is what Saturday’s contest revealed:
Yes, the Titans can compete with the Express.
Yes, K-W still needs to address those sluggish starts.
Yes, the Titans’ sometimes leaky defence could use some shoring up.
Yes, Windsor’s league-leading rebounder Juan Pattillo is all that.
And yes, the Express’s pintsized rookie point guard Maurice Jones, who set the league record for single-season assists at 316, runs an efficient and methodical offence.
“(Saturday) was an information session for me,” said Titans coach Serge Langis. “And I know it is the same thing for (Windsor coach) Bill Jones. Now, we’ve got ourselves a chess match.”
The Express chugged to a 16-point lead in Saturday’s second quarter, before the Titans scratched their way back to tie midway through the third quarter, eventually building a fivepoint bulge.
And once the Titans played at their breakneck tempo, it was the Express who struggled to keep pace before 1,360 fans at the Aud.
“Honestly, (the Titans) play really, really hard,” said Windsor guard Warren Ward, of London, Ont., after his 18-point performance Saturday.
“Sometimes they are very tough to keep up with because they are up and down the floor. But we have a lot of veterans on our side and they will showcase themselves over the next three games.”
Pattillo, a former Western Kentucky and Bowling Green forward, led all scorers and rebounders with 22 points and 16 boards on Saturday.
Adam Blazek paced the Titans with 15 points, including three three-pointers, giving the Erie, Pa. native 103 treys on the season.
“This game here proved we have a lot more work to do,” said league veteran and Titans guard Ed Horton, of Shreveport, La., after his 14 points performance.
Flen Whitfield and Tramar Sutherland also scored 14 points apiece for the hosts, while Titans power forward George Blakeney grabbed 16 rebounds.
Second-place Windsor claimed the regular-season series, with the third-place Titans by earning six wins in seven meetings.
Game 2 in the series goes Sunday, also at the Atlas Tube Centre in nearby Lakeshore, because the Express have been bumped from their usual digs at Windsor’s WFCU Centre to make way for the Memorial Cup tournament.
Action shifts to the Kitchener Aud for Game 3 on Wednesday, May 10. It’s a 7 p.m. tipoff.
The league-leading London Lightning will hook up with the fourth-place Orangeville A’s in the other central division semifinal series.