The early part of a brand new season finds the Sudbury Five still learning who they are – all while trying to pick up some wins along the way.
When both of those things happen simultaneously, there’s a very good chance that coach/GM Logan Stutz will be a pretty pleased gentleman.
“I’m happy with the 3-1 start,” noted the fifth year bench boss after the Five split a pair of road games in Montreal over the weekend, capturing the Saturday affair by the final count of 114-11 but succumbing in double overtime on Sunday, 126-121.
“We’ve got a new group and we’re just trying to find where to put guys to be successful on this team,” he added. “It’s a learning process right now.”
Throw in the topsy-turvy nature of the sport, especially at this level of basketball, and one can see the need to remain grounded through the inevitable ebbs and flows of regular season play.
“The interesting thing this weekend is that we probably should have lost the first one, and we won it, and we probably should have won the second one, and we lost it,” said Stutz.
Game one would require a fourth quarter rally for the visitors to improve to 3-0, trailing the Toundra 89-80 after three quarters of play before pulling one from the fire down the stretch.
Duane Notice and Sam Daniel combined to hit five of six free throws in the last fourteen seconds of play, allowing Sudbury to maintain a lead they secured with less than four minutes showing on the game clock when Landon Kirkwood converted on the lay-up to make the score 103-102.
Sam Daniel and Jalen Hayes showed the way for the winners with 23 points apiece with no less than five other Sudbury teammates also hitting double digits: Duane Notice (15), Cody John (14), Keljin Blevins (12), Landon Kirkwood (11) and A.J. Mosby Jr (10).
It was a somewhat similar story for the homeside as a relatively balanced attack featured the likes of Levi Londole (24 pts), Tafari Beckford (16), Antoine Mason (16), Phillip Flory (15), Diago Quinn (12), Mambi Diawara (12) and Devrell Tisdale (11), all at various times.
Once again, the improvement from the free-throw line this year paid dividends, with Sudbury shooting 80% (28-35) versus 60.5% (26-43) for Montreal, outscoring their opponents from the charity stripe despite drawing notably fewer fouls.
The Sunday encounter was something of a mirror image of the first matchup as Sudbury entered the final 12 minutes enjoying to a 78-72 advantage. But the teams were deadlocked at 101-101 at the end of regulation time and at 112-112 five minutes later before the Toundra finally put this contest away thanks to Londole and Beckford and some timely free throws.
A.J. Mosby Jr was back on track in this matchup, finishing with 29 points, with Duane Notice adding 23 and Jalen Hayes and Landon Kirkwood a little further back at 16 and 15 respectively. Antoine Mason topped the scoring parade for Montreal with 28 points, while Levi Londole (20) and Tafari Beckford (19) were also right in the thick of the Toundra offensive possessions, more often than not.
These contests marked the first time these two teams have met, with coach Stutz acknowledging that there is a degree of familiarity that should help his team, over time, as they adjust to the new Basketball Super League.
“It was interesting,” said Stutz. “Coming to a new city, playing a new team, it was an interesting vibe, an interesting feel. We’re obviously very comfortable playing teams in Ontario. We’ve got to get comfortable now playing teams outside of Ontario.
As the Five prepare to return home to host the London Lightning (Friday) and Pontiac Pharaohs (Saturday) next weekend, Stutz will continue to work on the master plan – so to speak. “I think we’re still trying to figure out our team’s identity,” he said. “I would like to play a little bit faster, but it looks like it’s almost a little bit slower basketball right now.”
“We’ll see where it goes as the season goes on.”
Either way, with four games to date decided by an average of less than seven points per game, Stutz is more than a little confident fans coming out to the games will leave highly entertained.
“There’s some very good talent, some very good teams,” he said. “This is a fun league.”
