Scrubb brothers clean up for River Lions

Head coach Victor Raso played alongside Thomas Scrubb and his younger brother Philip Scrubb at Carleton University and that connection has proven to be vital.

Thomas Scrubb led the River Lions with 22 points and nine rebounds while his younger sibling added 20 points and seven rebounds in a convincing 100-77 win over the Hamilton Honey Badgers in Canadian Elite Basketball League action Tuesday at Meridian Centre.

“You can tell, I’m just speaking basketball with them,” Raso said. “I’m not talking about effort or talking about anything. They’re reading and analyzing, I’m ready and analyzing. A quick conversation, and then they’re doing it.

“They’re really good. They’re making me look better than I am, that’s for sure.”

Thomas joined the team recently after a stint for Bourg-en-Bresse of the France-Jeep ELITE ProA League, where he averaged 8.2 points and 4.3 rebounds in 24 minutes of play.

“Tommy is a seasoned vet who plays the game the right way. He defends, rebounds, and can make plays on the offensive end,” Raso said. “Tommy is incredibly competitive and can assume many different roles for us.

“Tommy is also really smart, plus we do a lot of things we did in school, defensive rotations and stuff like that.”

Tommy Scrubb spent five years at Carleton where he averaged 10.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 104 university games. He was named the CIS (U SPORTS) Defensive Player of the Year twice, and CIS tournament All-Star on three occasions. Alongside his brother, he earned five straight CIS National Championships with the Ravens.

The Scrubb brothers were far from the only offensive contributors for Niagara which also saw Lloyd Pandi (20) and Oluseyi Ashaolu (19) hit double figures and all nine players who saw the floor collect at least one point.

“They showed they’re understanding what the plan was and taking advantage of the plan,” Raso said, of the balanced attack. “The plan is not for Lloyd (Pandi) to score 20 points, it’s for Lloyd to be opportunistic when we play through our matchups and that’s what we did. The guys were understanding of that.”

The River Lions also dominated the boards, out-rebounding the Honey Badgers 48-32.

“I am pleased,” Raso added. “Since we played Guelph last week, it was our biggest problem and the guys have really bought into that side of it. We kind of were before but we were relying on athleticism a bit and this group really has to box out.” 

Niagara, which has secured a playoff berth, improved to 8-4 while the Honey Badgers dropped to 9-4. The teams meet again in Hamilton Thursday and a Niagara win would all but assure them, along with the host Stingers, of an automatic berth in the semifinals on Championship Weekend Aug. 18-22 in Edmonton. The River Lions would win the tie-breaker with Hamilton based on the season series which they now lead 2-1.

With such a short season, each game takes on extra significance.

“Tonight felt like a playoff game at the beginning,” Raso said. “Down the stretch there you could tell it got a little bit sloppy, but it’s the start of our season and we did what we needed to do, but it means nothing if we don’t get it done Thursday.”