River Lions open with loss
The Niagara River Lions offence went sour Friday night and the result was a 74-67 road loss to the Brampton Honey Badgers in the Canadian Elite Basketball League season opener for both squads.
“I thought we played well in the first quarter. We played loose and we played hard and then we got tight,” River Lions head coach/GM Victor Raso said. “We did not play offence very well for the rest of the game and you could tell we were a team that was trying to find our identity on that side of the floor.”
There were no stats available after the game for Raso to look at but he didn’t need them to know his team struggled on offence.
“We did not shoot the ball well at all and we did not shoot it with aggression. On every offensive possession, it seemed like it was a struggle to be ourselves,” he said. “It’s Game 1, it’s part of it and we need to get back to the drawing board right away, simplify some things and be way more aggressive on that side of the ball.”
Raso blamed his squad’s lack of offensive finish on a number of things.
“We got ourselves in foul trouble a little bit and we started playing some lineups that we haven’t played. They made things difficult for us on offence and we weren’t very aggressive. We needed to be more aggressive to make easy plays and we got a little bit tentative and tentativeness can come from a lack of clarity on offence and that comes from me. I have to make sure the guys understand what are plan is every time down the floor so that they can be aggressive within it.”
Bad things happen if that is not the case.
“If you are a new team like this, everyone is looking to the next guy, they don’t know exactly what to do and all of a sudden a team can get more into you defensively and take things away. We have to be better.”
Despite the loss, there were lots of things that Raso liked about his team.
“Louden Love played excellent, Elijah Lufile played well at times and we only gave up 74 points and one player on their team hit a bunch of tough shots,” he said. “Defensively, rebounding-wise were all good, we just need to be better on the offensive end of the floor.”
Niagara lead 36-34 at the half before Brampton took control in the second half.
“We got more than enough stops but we just played so hesitant on offence,” Raso said. “We had a lot of missed shots around the rim, some untimely and unnecessary turnovers and we didn’t look like a group that was on the same page. That can happen and this is a tough league to win any game, especially on the road. And they had a couple of guys who stepped up. Their point guard played really well.”
The River Lions home opener will be May 30 at 7 p.m. at the Meridian Centre versus the Honey Badgers and one Brampton player gave Niagara a little bulletin board material to ponder.
“I think we’re just honestly … I think we’re the stronger team,” Zane Waterman said on Brampton’s website. “I think a lot of people counted us out this season and I think a lot of people are going to be biting their words.”
