NBLC Highlight Games: Sudbury vs Storm, February 29th
When the Island Storm hosted the Sudbury Five on Leap Day, they were the owners of a four-game losing streak. They were hoping that Sudbury would be feeling rusty after a week without playing in order to rectify that, but what followed would be an unpredictable and hard-fought contest at the Eastlink Centre.
Sudbury, on fire from three-point territory out of the gate, began the game with an 11-2 run and the Storm responded with eight points in a row, putting them up by one. Sudbury struck back with a trio of three-pointers, and though the streak was broken by Johnathan Loyd for the Storm, Jaylen Bland hit two more threes and Joey Puddister made a layup to finish the first quarter. Sudbury led 27-18.
After beginning Q2 by taking a double-digit lead, another flurry of Sudbury three pointers came in, Jarryn Skette and JR Holder between them hitting three in a row from beyond the arc. Loyd did his best to try and keep the Storm within touch, but with the points continuing to come in from Bland and Brady Skeens, Sudbury finished the first half leading by thirteen points.
Bland continued to hit from three-point territory at the start of the second half and Dexter Williams got in on the act, giving Sudbury their biggest lead of the game - twenty points with little under four minutes played in the third.
Suddenly the Storm sprang into life and Loyd, Alex Campbell, Robbie Robinson and Marcus Lewis started hitting from all spots on the offensive end to cut the deficit down from twenty to just three ahead of the final period of regulation.
Loyd opened the fourth quarter with a three, tying the game for the Storm. Bland responded from outside, returning the lead to Sudbury, with stood at ten points with six minutes to go. The Storm then had an 8-0 run to make it a two point game, which was the gap between the teams in the last two minutes of play.
Sudbury got the lead back out to six, but Loyd and Robinson cut down that gap and a last-second three from Antwon Lillard tied the scores at 110 on the final buzzer. The game went to overtime, where the Storm tied the scores on Sudbury's first three attempts to break away. Sudbury finally went in front after a three from Bland, followed by a missed shot from Loyd that proved to be a deciding play in the game.
Bland and Holder put the game to bed with the final points for Sudbury, they made the final score 124-122 in favour of the visitors.
Compensation for the Storm would be double-doubles from Johnathan Loyd (26 points and 12 assists), Alex Campbell (23 points and 12 assists) and Antwon Lillard (18 points and 13 rebounds). JR Holder also had a double double for the five, registering 18 points and 13 rebounds, while Braylon Rayson finished with 30 points.
The stand-out player in the game, though, was Jaylen Bland who finished the game with 46 points and 10 rebounds in one of the most spectacular individual showings of the 2019-20 NBL Canada season.
