High Scores and Close Finishes - Super League Weekend Recap
Four teams played in three games across two nights in the Super League, all of them with very different results that are now as important as ever with the post season now in sight.
Saturday night's only game saw the Newfoundland Rogues on the road at the Sudbury Five, where early threes from Newfoundland gave them an early lead of six, and more threes late in the first quarter kept them in front after Sudbury tightened the gap.
In the second quarter the Rogues were led in a dominant performance behind Marquis Collins and Shandarious Cowart off the bench, giving the team the game's biggest lead of seventeen points. Collins continued to lead the scoring for Newfoundland in the second half - he finished with a game-high 37 points - but Sudbury's three-point shooting kept them within contention going into the final quarter.
The Sudbury Five started the fourth quarter trailing by twelve points and the Rogues were maintaining that advantage from the paint, until eight in a row for Sudbury from AJ Mosby made it a single possession game. JD Miller then put them ahead by one point and Deontae Hawkins extended that lead to four points.
In the final minute Cowart tied the scores for the Rogues and Collins sealed a heroic performance for Newfoundland, completing an and-one layup with put them up by three in the last seconds. Mosby put up a final three-point attempt that fell short and Newfoundland breathed a big sigh of relief and joy having survived a late rally from Sudbury to win by three.
Mosby led the hosts with 23 points and JD Miller finished with 21 and 13 total rebounds off the bench for Sudbury, who had their revenge the following night against the Glass City Wranglers.
The visitors from Toledo, Ohio saw five three pointers from John Washington in the first four minutes, giving them a ten-point lead, in response Sudbury stepped up their play in the paint and claimed the lead with a 10-3 run late in the first quarter.
They continued their intensity from close-range into the second quarter, with Mosby leading the team's offence in the second and third quarter as Alex Heath tried to get the Wranglers back into the game. In the final quarter it was the Sudbury bench who sank the dagger for the home team, putting up a combined 29 points to cap off a huge 141-106 win.
The Wranglers are yet to get a win in the season but saw an impressive sixteen three-pointers, five coming from their top scorer Alex Heath who had 26, he was the joint top scorer along with AJ Mosby for the Sudbury Five.
The weekend's highlight game took place in Quebec, where the Montreal Toundra hosted the Newfoundland Rogues on Sunday night. Montreal had an early lead but the Rogue's superior low post play, led by Omega Harris, saw them go in front by six points.
Eight points unanswered saw the Toundra tie the game, then Antoine Mason put them in front and they were soon leading by four, a pattern soon repeated by Newfoundland. After five lead changes Montreal went eight points in front, Amrani Chaney led Newfoundland in closing the gap while Montreal kept working to keep their visitors at a distance.
Newfoundland began the final quarter with a 15-0 run and had the largest lead of the game at nine points. Montreal were now having to close the gap and were again led in doing so by Mason, despite Newfoundland kept finding open looks which kept them in front ahead of the final minute.
The Toundra then hit three from the charity stripe and Dominick Welch followed that with a three-pointer, putting them in front by a point. The teams jostle for possession in the final few seconds but with no further shot attempts the win was Montreal's by the narrowest margin.
Chaney had a game-high 41 points, his team mate Collins finishing with 23 points and 9 total rebounds
Mambi Diawara had a season-best 21 points and Antoine Mason led Montreal with 25 points in their one point win.
Even with the win Montreal are still bottom of the table, while Newfoundland's win sees them jump above Sudbury in the standings, the KW Titans are still league leaders followed by the London Lightning and the Windsor Express.
Check back here for more results in the last month of the Super League regular season and find more here on the official league website.
