The Saskatchewan Rattlers had their three-game winning streak snapped at the hands of the Niagara River Lions, who dealt the Rattlers their second loss of the season by a score of 108-91 at SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon.
The River Lions, who defeated the Rattlers in the CEBL’s opening game earlier this season, moved to 2-0 in Saskatoon.
“They got us by a couple. We still play them four more times. We’ll watch game tape, and we’ll make some adjustments for ourselves offensively so that we can get them back on their heels a little bit. We got some talented guys, and we need to make them defend more than they had to tonight,” said Rattlers head coach Greg Jockims.
Saskatchewan and Niagara are now tied atop of the league's standings with matching 3-2 records through five games.
Bruce Massey led the Rattlers in scoring with 21 points on 6-14 shooting, to go along with eight rebounds, while Tavrion Dawson recorded 17 points and seven rebounds of his own.
All five of the River Lions starters were in double figures on the night, with Nem Mitrovic leading the way with 18 points.
Juan Patillo’s layup gave Saskatchewan a quick 7-1 lead just minutes into the contest. However, Niagara took control soon after. The visitors went on a run of their own and held a seven-point advantage late in the quarter.
However, the home side refused to go away, as Terry Thomas, who was making his Rattlers debut, made an instant impact in the first quarter. The University of Ottawa alumnus knocked down a three-pointer with 40 seconds left in the opening frame, which trimmed the River Lions lead to four after the game’s opening quarter.
The highlight of the night belonged to Jelane Pryce who delivered a monstrous chase-down block on Trae Bell-Haynes midway through the second quarter, which brought the Snake Pit and Rattlers bench to their feet.
Late in the second quarter, Saskatchewan started to claw their way back into the contest, when Negus Webster-Chan drained a corner three-ball. On the other end, yet another big-time rejection from Pryce allowed the Rattlers to get out in transition, where Thomas finished the fast break with a lay-up to close the half on a 5-0 Rattlers run.
However, off the backs of 10-17 from beyond-the-arc in the first half, including 5-6 shooting from downtown for Mitrovic, the visitors took a 58-44 lead into halftime.
The River Lions were able to build on their lead throughout the third quarter, as they outscored the Rattlers 32-20 in the frame, to take a 26-point lead into the final frame.
Saskatchewan hopped out on an 11-2 run to start the fourth quarter thanks to three-point makes from Thomas and Alex Campbell, to go along with five points from Bruce Massey.
Despite outscoring the visitors 27-18, the damage was done, as Saskatchewan was unable to fully However, the River Lions were able to keep the Rattlers at bay throughout the remainder of the contest and seal the win on the road.
The Rattlers will look to get back in the win column next Friday night when they trek west for the first meeting with the Edmonton Stingers in the inaugural CEBL season.
“We got to work on our transition defense next week in practice. We got to clean up our offense, we were too stagnant tonight. We don’t want to go to Edmonton and make the same mistakes,” said Massey. “We had a couple of new guys in the lineup, and we got to get our chemistry back together. They’re slight adjustments, but they’re big ones.”
