Red hot finish overcomes ice cold start
Niagara comes back to defeat Hamilton despite not scoring until 4:30 into the game
The Niagara River Lions are finding the basket more than half-full at the midway point of the Canadian Elite Basketball League regular season.
A 71-68 come-from-behind victory over the Hamilton Honey Badgers on Saturday night at Meridian Centre in St. Catharines improved their record to 4-3 with seven games remaining in the shortened season.
Niagara, which played in front of spectators at home for the first time since Aug. 1, 2019, returned to the win column by overcoming a 19-3 deficit and outscoring the visitors 29-12 in the third quarter.
The Honey Badgers, who dug their way from a 17-point hole in a 78-76 victory over Niagara the week before in Hamilton, jumped out to an 8-0 lead on a cold-shooting River Lions team in the rematch.
Just how cold was the home team when it drove to the rim and had open looks at the basket?
Niagara didn’t score its first point until 4:30 — yes, four minutes and 30 seconds! — into the game.
“It felt like four years,” a relieved Victor Raso, Niagara’s general manager and head coach, said with a chuckle in a post-game scrum.
He described his team’s start as “almost comical.”
“We were getting pretty good looks, but I think we went something crazy, like one of 18, to start the game,” Raso said. “I don’t think we were getting bad shots, but nothing was going in.”
The third-year head coach was impressed with his team’s compete level.
“They battled incredibly hard. They broke through in that third quarter and just kept getting stops and rebounds,” Raso said.
“They were on the same page and executed.
“Basketball is a tough sport. You try to play an imperfect game perfectly, and our guys just dealt with so much adversity.”
Niagara guard Javin Delaurier, who led all players with 17 points and 17 rebounds, said the come-from-behind win speaks to the team’s character.
“That’s really just a testament to the character of the guys we have in our locker room, being able to fight back from a deficit like that,” he said. “We’ve done it several times throughout the season.”
Niagara’s long scoring drought to start the game didn’t faze guard Jaylen Babb-harrison, whose 13 points included the game-winning field goal in a nail-biting Elam Ending.
He didn’t think the presence of an announced crowd of 943 fans contributed to the home team’s cold start.
“I don’t think it was that. I just feel like it was one of those days.
That’s just how basketball is sometimes,” the former Honey Badger said. “Sometimes you don’t make shots, so you start doing the other things.
“You have to play defence, rebound. Just play harder. Do everything else better.”
Babb-harrison said the importance of playing in front of fans can’t be overstated.
“It’s super important. We feed off that energy,” he said. “We don’t have the fans, we probably don’t win that game.
“Even though it seemed like we started off cold, if we didn’t have fans, we might have even started off colder.”
Raso felt the presence of fans in the stands.
“It was awesome. It looked great, too,” he said. “It felt like a normal game.”
Niagara’s next three games are at home, beginning with Tuesday’s 7 p.m. tipoff with the Saskatchewan Rattlers. After that is a rematch with the Ottawa Blackjacks, Saturday, July 24, and their first game in league play against the Guelph Nighthawks, Friday, July 30.
Raso said Niagara can’t afford to dismiss the 0-8 Rattlers as snakebit.
“We can’t look past Saskatchewan. They’re not as bad as their record is,” he said. “They have some new Americans in there.
“They’re playing in a playoff game pretty much all the time.”
All but the last-place finisher in the seven-team league will remain in contention for a CEBL championship after the season wraps up on Aug. 10.
Championship Week is taking place Aug. 18 to 22 at the 4,857seat Expo Centre in Edmonton where the team with the best record in league play and the host Edmonton Stingers await the winners of quarter-final round action Aug. 14 and 15.
Edmonton is also the defending champion.
Choice of the Alberta capital for this year’s final four continues a trend to alternate between Eastern and Western Canada.
Last year’s Summer Series championship tournament was played without spectators while the inaugural Championship Weekend was held in Saskatoon, home of the Rattlers.
The Rattlers went on to take the title on their home court.
Next year’s Championship Weekend will be held in Ottawa.
“Sometimes you don’t make shots, so you start doing the other things. You have to play defence, rebound. Just play harder. Do everything else better.” JAYLEN BABB-HARRISON NIAGARA RIVER LIONS GUARD