River Lions hang on versus Montreal

The Niagara River Lions almost let one get away Friday night in Canadian Elite Basketball League action against the visiting Montreal Alliance.

Ahead 91-77 in Elam ending time with a target score of 97, the River Lions gave up a 16-0 run to fall behind 93-91 to the Alliance. A pair of free throws by Omari Moore tied the game at 93-93 before Montreal once again grabbed a two-point lead. Following a pair of free throws by Nathan Cayo to tie the game at 95-95, Niagara got a stop and then won 97-95 on two free throws by Aaryn Rai.

Rai looked calm, cool and collected in hitting the winning free throws but he was anything but.

“If you ask anyone, even Lebron, he would be nervous as well but I trusted I was going to make them and I believed in myself. Luckily they went it.”

Niagara did not look great coughing up a big lead in target time.

“They were playing hard and we kind of got complacent. With target time, we only had to score nine points and we thought it was almost impossible for them to tie it up,” Rai said. “They did and it was a helluva job of them playing hard and all that but luckily we pulled it out.”

The end of the game was a continuation of Niagara’s play all night. They built a big first half lead, coughed it up, built up another sizeable advantage to start the second half and once again allowed Montreal to creep within striking distance.

It was eerily similar to the team’s Wednesday game versus the Scarborough Shooting Stars.

“That is kind of what we have been the last two games. We are up and we are down and we need to practise,” River Lions head coach/GM Victor Raso said. “We are very good when we are good, we are average when we are not and we haven’t played a full 40 minutes since we played those guys the last time (June 13). We have to get back to the drawing board a little bit and relax.”

Relaxing would be a good starting point.

“We have to play better and keep our emotions and our play even keel,” he said. “It is always tougher to be leading in those moments and when the momentum starts going, you have to be able to be on the same page. It is tough because I am trying to call some plays down the stretch and Khalil (Ahmad) doesn’t know them. That’s why we have to practise.”

Target time was a combination of the River Lions not taking great shots and not being good enough on defence.

“We kind of chilled out a little bit and stopped attacking. Sometimes there is a lid on the rim on target time but a lot of it is your approach to it. We were hoping the refs would make a call and I thought we got bumped a couple of times at the rim that could have changed the way the game was but it is what it is,” Raso said.

But a win is still a win.

“We will be better for it and we will learn from a win but we were getting quite close to giving one away because of how we are playing,” he said. “We should be winning by a lot.”

Niagara also suffered a couple of injuries in the game. Elijah Lufile rolled his ankle and didn’t return and TJ Lall seemed to hurt his ankle but he came back during target time.

STATS PACK

River Lions 97 Alliance 95

BPSN Player of the Game: Niagara’s Nathan Cayo with 21 points and a plus-20 rating.

For the Niagara River Lions: Cayo 21, Jahvon Blair 21; Aaryn Rai, 16 points and five rebounds; Khalil Ahmad with 10 points; Omari Moore with eight points and six rebounds; Elijah Lufile with eight points and six boards; and, Jordan Tchuente with seven points.

For the Montreal Alliance: Jordan Bowden 24; Ahmed Hill 23; Chris Smith 20.

Game stats: Shooting percentage: Niagara 47.9, Montreal 47.3. Free throws: Niagara 20-24, Montreal 18-22. Rebounds: Niagara 44, Montreal 36. Turnovers: Niagara 14, Montreal 13.

Up next: The first-place River Lions (6-3) are at Winnipeg Sea Bears next Thursday.