Now this is a league final that could be a whole lot of fun.
In a matchup of the top two teams in the Basketball Super League Saturday night, the Windsor Express and Sudbury Five did not disappoint, hooking up in a game that flowed quickly through to a very tense final few minutes of play.
For as much as a 107-104 Sudbury loss that extended the current Five losing streak to three games was a disappointment to a large home crowd, the game itself featured plenty of back and forth stretches of quality basketball, notably on the offensive end of the court.
“I actually thought that was a very well managed basketball game,” conceded Sudbury coach Logan Stutz. “The players, the coaches, the refs: that was a good visual basketball game for anyone who attended.”
“That’s fun to be part of,” Stutz added. “Obviously, I wanted a different result, but I didn’t mind the game itself. I just would have liked to see our players grab the reward a bit more, just go out and take what you earned.”
Certainly, the Windsor Express proved worthy of their 10-3 record in regular season play to date, topping the league standings. “They shoot the ball at an extremely high percentage,” noted Stutz.
“We should have challenged some shots better, but they play very efficient offense, under control basketball.”
And yet Sudbury was able to counter-punch with the best of them, at least right to the point of impact. If a pair of road losses last weekend to the Pontiac Pharaohs (119-109) and Glass City Wranglers (89-87) left Stutz searching for more emotion and intensity from his troops, that wasn’t the team’s shortfall versus the Express.
“We went out there and competed; our energy level was higher,” acknowledged Stutz. “We just could not finish layups, we could not finish free throws, we could not finish minor details on the scout on the defensive end. Our energy and effort got us to the point of finishing in a lot of areas – but we just failed to do so.”
Shooting 38% from beyond the arc, the visitors jumped out to a quick lead but neither team could truly pull away to any great extent, with Windsor up 24-23 after twelve minutes of play and 57-54 at the half. A 26-19 run in the quarter positioned the visitors well only to see Sudbury close the gap to just a single score with 19 seconds to play.
The Windsor starters did the bulk of the damage on the attack, with Tray Maddox (32), Mike Bruce (21), Cameron Gaines (16) and Latin Davis (14) leading the way while the Five countered with the one-two punch of Ja’Myrin Jackson (25) and Charlie Marquardt (23).
Though they were not in the starting lineup, Jelani Simmons (34 minutes), Amir Williams (22) and Allen Billinger (19) earned their fair share of court time as Stutz searched for answers at various times against an opponent who has a very good idea of how they need to play winning basketball.
“They have a very good thing going,” Stutz noted. “In their wins, they are shooting 41% from three and outrebounding teams by thirteen. Tonight they shot 39% (from three) and outrebounded us by 12. They are playing good basketball.”
“For us, it’s habits,” Stutz continued. “If you have good practice habits, good off-court habits, things start to happen. The ball goes in, you get the loose balls, you get the free throws to drop. We’re fighting some bad habits and we’ve got to change a few little things.”
“I was hoping for an instant bounce back result, but it might take a little time.”
That said, a 10-2 run to start the season has given the Five a little more rope as they look to a very busy February schedule that sees them facing London and Newfoundland twice each, with single matchups remaining against Windsor, Pontiac and Jamestown.
“We’re in second place, which is kind of right where I thought we would be – just maybe not coming off three straight losses,” said Stutz. “It’s time to get the momentum going back up in the second half of the year and grab one of those first or second seed spots and avoid the play-in games.”
And if the Windsor Express and Sudbury Five were to meet in the 2024-2025 BSL championship final, that wouldn’t be the worst thing either.
