This was a game the Sudbury Five pretty much had to win – and while they certainly did not make it easy on themselves, the local National Basketball League of Canada squad did enough good things often enough to walk off their home court as 113-105 victors over the Newfoundland Rogues on Sunday afternoon.
“You have to give them a lot of credit,” said Sudbury head coach Logan Stutz. “They play hard; they never give up. They’re a team that just goes and goes and goes. Credit to them for that – but we also are our own worst enemy at times. It’s a couple of extra turnovers, or missed free throws – but I still feel that we will be okay. We’re in a good spot.”
Coming off a forgettable two-game jaunt to London last weekend and in the midst of a three game losing skid, the Five stayed with the visitors through a sluggish opening quarter before turning things on through the second twelve, building up a 59-47 lead at the half. In fact, much of the remainder of the contest followed this accordion pattern, if you will: the Five strings together a nice stretch to build a double digit lead and then the Rogues fight back.
Improving their season record to 5-3, Sudbury was led by a quartet of players, all within two points of one another on the day: Jeremy Harris (22); A.J. Mosby Jr (21); Jaylen Bland (20); J.D. Miller (20). By contrast, Newfoundland guard Armani Chaney was something of a one-man wrecking crew, at times, finishing with a game high 38 point performance.
Leading the way in the paint with 13 rebounds for the Five, Miller suggested that there is something to be said for having the ability to play through encounters like this one. “That’s part of basketball,” Miller stated. “We can’t be frustrated. We just have to go out and play the way we practice to play.”
“We have to fight through adversity, figure it out and win the game – and that’s what we did.”
Leading the league in rebounding and sitting sixth overall in scoring, the graduate of Texas Christian University who has played professionally in both the Ukraine and Germany is more than a little pleased with the way things are coming together in Sudbury.
“I feel that coach is doing a good job of putting everybody in the right spots where we need to be,” said Miller. “We need to get everybody fluid, get them to the right spots where everybody can score, be active, make the right pass and win games. That’s what we all want.”
Despite a crowd in excess of two thousand (once again) on hand for the game, the seven day break since their last outing may have played a part in a relatively slow start, with the Five looking to build some momentum as they leave this week for three more matchups with the Rogues on the east coast before welcoming the Kitchener-Waterloo Titans to Sudbury for a Family Day battle.
“We were slow on energy,” acknowledged Stutz. “The three o’clock start is a little different, the Super Bowl is today. We didn’t quite have the energy that we needed – but it picked up through some really good spurts. We just need to find a way to put it together more.”
And, as is so often the case, one very familiar vet was right in the middle of jump-starting a particularly key run. “When Dexter (Williams Jr) dove on the floor, the game changed,” said Stutz, with Miller certainly not about to debate the point. “Dexter started it off for us, diving on the floor, getting loose balls,” Miller agreed.
“That gets everybody going and when everybody is going, everything is more fluid.”
With Newfoundland arriving in town with just eight players dressed for the game and six of the eight finishing play with four fouls or more, the Five might not have sweated things out quite so much if not for a horrid 23-39 (59%) performance from the free-throw line.
Throw in the 38 points that Chaney drained, just one less than he scored against London one night earlier, and it all adds up to a win that did not truly come together, for certain, until the final minute of play.
“To tell who the truth, he (Chaney) is the best guard that we have seen – and that’s no disrespect to anybody that we have seen yet, but there’s not a team that’s held him under thirty,” said Stutz. “He’s a tough kid and he knows what he is good at – and he’s good at scoring. It’s tough to stop him.”
Yet that is exactly the challenge that lies ahead as Sudbury tackles a three-game set in St John’s with games this Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
