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Rattlers lose to River Lions

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The Saskatchewan Rattlers were defeated on Friday by the Niagara River Lions, with a final score of 94-83.

 

The hosting River Lions wasted no time out of the gates, opening the game with three straight unanswered buckets, two of which came from Guillaume Payen-Boucard. Saskatchewan’s Tavrion Dawson dropped an and-one layup, which was followed by a Bruce Massey layup that brought the Rattlers to within one. 

 

After a Niagara shot from deep went, Saskatchewan came back with three straight threes of their own, two from Gentrey Thomas and one from Dawson. The quick shooting spree gave the Rattlers a five-point lead with four minutes to go in the first. 

 

The teams went back and forth for the remainder of the quarter, with Saskatchewan leading 23-19 at the horn.

 

Terry Thomas began the quarter for the visiting Rattlers, making a layup to put his team up by six. River Lion Alex Johnson proceeded to drain a three, which was matched by an Alex Campbell three from Saskatchewan. 

 

Close to four minutes into the second quarter, Alex Campbell hit a three to bring Saskatchewan’s lead back to seven. Immediately after, the River Lions strung together an impressive 18-5 run that stretched right to the buzzer. 

 

After 20 minutes of play, the Niagara River Lions led the Saskatchewan Rattlers 44-38.

 

Saskatchewan’s comeback efforts began with a jumper from Alex Campbell. Niagara pieced together five unanswered points, but a jump shot from Tavrion Dawson narrowed the lead back to seven.

 

Trae Bell-Haynes dropped a floater for Niagara, which was followed by a 9-0 run from Saskatchewan, tying up the game at 51 apiece.

 

With just two minutes left in the third, the game was deadlocked at 57-57. Tavrion Dawson dropped a layup plus the foul and drained the shot from the charity stripe to put the Rattlers up by three. Payen-Boucard hit back-to-back layups, which gave the River Lions the lead by one.

 

With 19 seconds to go, Terry Thomas hit the final shot of the quarter; a three-pointer to give the Rattlers a two-point lead, finishing the quarter 63-61.

 

The final quarter didn’t go as planned for the Rattlers. After one minute of play, the River Lions strung together a 10-0 run that put them up by seven. That was the turning point for Niagara, as Saskatchewan was never able to narrow the lead to less than six.

 

The game ended with the River Lions as victors, topping the Rattlers 94-83.

 

Tavrion Dawson scored a game-high 22 points tonight, but it wasn’t enough to lift the Rattlers over Niagara.

 

Trae Bell-Haynes led the way for the River Lions, scoring 20 points and grabbing 10 boards.

 

With their loss Friday, the Saskatchewan Rattlers dropped to third in the league standings with a record of 6-4. They’ll travel back home for a meeting against the Fraser Valley Bandits next Thursday.

 

Niagara improved their record to 8-2 with their win, as they defeated the Rattlers for the third time this season. They’ll play the Hamilton Honey Badgers next Wednesday at home.