River Lions Take Care of Home Court Against Montreal Alliance

ST CATHARINES, ON – The River Lions returned home for the first time this season to Niagara to face the Montreal Alliance and came away with an 87-62 victory on Friday night to improve to 3-1 while the Alliance are now 2-2.

Niagara opened the game as efficient as they could be on offence, scoring almost every time down the floor and pushing out to a 17-4 lead over the Montreal Alliance.  Transition offence off of defensive rebounds gave them a lot of their points as players like Khalil Ahmad and Alonzo Walker got out and ran.  The River Lions got their offence set up before Montreal could establish their defence and they found shots all over the floor for Ej Onu and a corner three for Jaylen Babb-Harrison.  They shot 72 per cent from the field while Montreal shot 33 and going into the second quarter they held a 26-11 lead over the Alliance.

Montreal established their offence more as the first half went on, finding lanes to the rim and spacing to create for shooters, and Isiah Osborne came off the bench sparking the scoring with seven points of his own in the first half.  They built on their shooting to improve to 42 per cent at half but they were unable to fully cut away the River Lions lead they had established. 

Thanks to Osborne and Dominic Green, the Alliance were able to cut their deficit to five and went into half trailing Niagara 41-36.  Green and Osborne led the Alliance at half with 11 points each, while Osborne also led the team with six rebounds.  For Niagara, EJ Onu got into rhythm and scored 10 in the first half, Ahmad following behind with seven of his own.  Antonio Davis Jr. established his presence inside and recorded six rebounds in the half.

Niagara slowly extended their lead in the third quarter thanks to their defensive rebounding and ability to get the ball quickly up the floor.  They were the benefactor of many transition layups throughout the quarter and their active hands on defence caused problems for the Alliance shooting.  Osborne continued to be the consistent pulse of the Alliance offence but Niagara built on their lead and finished the third quarter with a 70-48 lead.  Osborne led the Alliance with 15 points off the bench at the third quarter break with running mate Green close behind with 13.  Philip Scrubb and Antonio Davis Jr. mostly contributed to the River Lions offence during the third quarter, Scrubb entering the fourth with six points and Davis Jr with 11.

Montreal got to the rim in the fourth quarter and created spacing for their shooters, but they weren’t able to cut into the deficit.  Niagara maintained their execution on both ends of the floor and they maintained their lead, pushing out to a 78-54 lead going into Elam time.  The target score was set at 87 as both teams came out of the timeout.  Going into Elam time, the Alliance held a 40-36 advantage on the boards, specifically a 15-6 advantage on the offensive boards but Niagara’s 50 per cent shooting proved to be too much to chip away at with second chances due to Niagara’s rim protection from Ej Onu and Tidjan Keita.

Davis Jr. scored the first four points for the River Lions in Elam time and their transition play did the rest thanks to a Scrubb three and Ahmad inside the paint to give the River Lions the 87-62 win over the Montreal Alliance.

The River Lions had five starters finish in double-digits on the scoreboard.  Davis Jr led the team with 15 points, 11 rebounds, an assist and a pair of blocks.  Ahmad scored 14 to go with three rebounds, nine assists, and two steals.  Jaylen Babb-Harrison and Ej Onu both scored 10 while Alonzo Walker contributed 12.  Philip Scrubb played his first game back in the River Lions lineup and ended with nine points, two rebounds an assist and a steal.

For the Alliance, Green and Osborne both finished with 15 points, Green seven rebounds and Osborne six rebounds, Nathan Cayo finished with nine points and two rebounds.

River Lions head coach Victor Raso mentioned after their win over Guelph that the River Lions needed to be better taking care of the basketball, this is what he had to say about that following their win tonight, “we were more organized, we spent a lot of time over the past couple days talking about that so we were better, I still think we can execute a bit more”.

Montreal attacked the rim on offence throughout the game, Niagara head coach Victor Raso talked about his teams’ effort defending the rim and how they can improve, “I thought that we defended ok around the rim.  We’re still kinda struggling understanding our fundamentals around the rim, I thought we did a bad job collapsing too much when that wasn’t the plan but we’re getting there.”