NBLC Highlight Games: St. John's vs Halifax, January 5th
The 2019-20 season was still young, but it's never to early to have a nail-biting contest, which the St. John's Edge and Halifax Hurricanes discovered when the latter hosted the former on January 5th.
Both teams were in a similar situation, showing early struggles in the season, and had already met once before on December 29th, where Halifax had won 112-108. Since then the Hurricanes had lost three in a row while the Edge had lost two out of their next three fixtures. A win would have been most welcome for either side.
The teams exchanged baskets to begin with before Halifax charged into the lead with 13 unanswered points. Elijah Macon and Junior Cadougan struck back for the Edge and midway through the second quarter Mike Edwards gave them the lead back, only for Marvell Waithe to put the Hurricanes back up by three at the half-time buzzer.
Five three-pointers in the third quarter from Halifax gave them their biggest lead of the game at seventeen. St. John's responded by opening the fourth quarter with nine unanswered points, getting to within three points of their hosts. Cane Broome then gave the lead back to the Edge after three minutes and thirty seconds played in Q3.
Antoine Mason's work in the paint kept the advantage with Halifax down the stretch, but St. John's were not done yet. Broome and Karrington Ward combined to tie the scores ahead of the final minute, after which the lead changed hands two more times, with the Edge ahead by three with seconds left. Ta'Quan Zimmerman missed a three-pointer, which was tipped in by Joel Kindred, which did only to make it a one-point game, but in the Edge's favour.
The game's top scorer was Mason with 31 points, while Marvell Waithe finished with a double-double, 21 points and 12 rebounds. The Edge, meanwhile, saw seven players finish in double digits, the leader being Karrington Ward with 21 to go with nine total boards in the game. Montay Brandon and Cane Broome both had 16 off the St. John's bench, with Brandon also grabbing 11 rebounds in the 109-108 victory.
