Basketball Super League Season Two Gets Underway

The 2024 Basketball Super League season got fully underway with a slate of three games on Saturday.

After their opening blowout win over the Tri-State Admirals, the Newfoundland Rogues travelled south to Michigan to face the Pontiac Pharaohs. After falling behind early on, the Rogues quickly found momentum and put themselves in the driver seat; buoyed by Rashad Smith’s 16 first-half points, they went 21 in front midway through the second quarter.

Pontiac followed this with a 20-4 run, bringing the gap down to four points before half time, when Deon Rice put them up by one. The Pharaohs lead reached seven points but quickly cut down, which was followed by four lead changes going into the fourth quarter. At this crunch point in the game, Newfoundland floundered on offence and Pontiac, led by Khalil Gracey and James Towns, did not falter and to winning by ten points.

Smith led the Rogues with 25 points in the loss, David Jasson had 16 off the bench, as did Zach Mgobo who also grabbed twelve total rebounds. Six Pharaohs finished in double digits, with James Towns leading all with 34 in the win in Pontiac.

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Meanwhile in Kitchener, the KW Titans came out firing and sharing the ball well against the Glass City Wranglers. The Titans put the first points on the board and, led by Dominick Welch and Samson Akano, they obliterated the Wranglers in the field, outscoring their visitors by twenty points in the first half.

Once KW reached their game-high lead of 27 points, forward Cameron Wilbon attempted to mount a comeback for Glass City in the second half. However the Titans continued piling on points in the paint and maintained a tough defensive presence to see out victory by a huge margin, 111-95.

Wilbon was Glass City’s top scorer with 23 points, with four others reaching the double-digit mark. Welch and Akano were joint lead scorers with 24 points apiece for the Titans, with the former also grabbing 11 rebounds. Jaquan Lightfoot and Jordan Burns both finished with double-doubles as well, while Dee Barnes impressed with 13 points off the bench.

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After a slow start, the London Lightning were sparked by Paul Parks and Tonzell Handy off the bench, their lead grew to eleven points early in the second quarter. The Sudbury Five struck back in the second quarter with Charlie Marquardt and Ja’Myrin Jackson combining to great effect in the field.

Outscoring London by seventeen in Q2, the Five began the second half leading by ten, with eight in a row from Diego Bernard and Jackson keeping them in front at the third quarter’s end. London began the fourth with an 8-0 run and went back into the lead, reinforced by Chris Jones, but every attempt by the Lightning to put the game to bed was met with resistance from the Five.

A late 8-1 run from Sudbury tied the scores and Jackson put them up by one, but ten points in the last minute for London saw them get the season off to a winning start with a four-point win over the Five. Jackson was Sudbury’s lead scorer with 30 points off the bench, Marquardt had 24 while five more finished in double digits. Parks impressed in his debut with the Lightning with 25 points, behind only Jones with 29.

After a promising, high-energy opening weekend, it looks like there will be a lot more great things to expect from the 2024-25 Super League season. Be sure to check back here for regular updates throughout.