River Lions quell Surge

Niagara River Lions head coach/GM Victor Raso got the exact response he was looking for Thursday night after calling his team out following a lacklustre three-game road trip.

The River Lions dominated the visiting Calgary Surge from the opening tip-off and were full value for a dominating 109-89 victory that improved their Eastern Conference-leading record to 8-5. The Surge dropped to 6-7 with the loss in Canadian Elite Basketball League play.

“We played better basketball and that is the best we’ve played since Khalil’s (Ahmad) return to the team so that was really good,” Raso said.

The reason for the improved play was twofold.

“It was time spent together watching film and attention to detail because our defensive intensity had not been good enough,” he said. “That is what we wanted to do. We wanted to be more dictating on the defensive end, force people into misses, rebound and go and we did a much better job tonight.”

Raso mentioned a lack of resiliency when criticizing his team earlier this week and that was not an issue Thursday night. Each time the Surge made a run, the River Lions had a response that matched or exceeded the Calgary surge.

“That is exactly what I was hoping for and that we would be able to learn from it. Every time they scored a couple of points, we scored more and we kept the lead at 20. We put pressure on them to go away from who they are and we stuck with it tonight,” Raso said. “That is the sign of a good basketball team.”

The challenge for the River Lions will be to produce more of the same. They have already had stretches this season where they looked like the best team in the league one night and followed it up by laying a huge egg.

“It’s the truth. There was a stretch where we strung together some good games in a row and then we played Ottawa and we were horrible,” Raso said. “Now we have an opportunity to not do that and we get to do it against Ottawa too. We have to consistently play winning basketball even on the days when we don’t shoot the ball really well.”

Jahvon Blair, who scored a game-high 25 for Niagara, liked how the team responded Thursday night.

“Coach Vic wasn’t happy with how we played our last game and we sat down yesterday and today and watched film over and over and over,” he said. “We came out with more aggression because we knew how important this game was. If we keep playing like this, things will fall into place.”

Being consistent is the key.

“We can’t keep going up and down, up and down. We have to stay smooth and go where we want to go,” Blair said. “We know our end goal is to get to the Final Four and we just have to do what we need to do to get there.”

STATS PACK

River Lions 109 Surge 89

BPSN Player of the Game: Niagara’s Jahvon Blair with 25 points and five assists.

For the Niagara River Lions: Blair 25; TJ Lall 19; Khalil Ahmad 16; Aaryn Rai 12; Elijah Lufile 10.

For the Calgary Surge: Stefan Smith 19; Corey Davis Jr. 17; Malcolm Duvivier 13.

Game stats: Field goal percentage: Niagara 53.4, Calgary 46.9. Free throws: Niagara 16-19, Calgary 16-20. Rebounds: Niagara 37, Calgary 33. Turnovers: Niagara 11, Calgary 18.

Up next: Niagara hosts Ottawa Saturday at 7 p.m.

Visit www.riverlions.ca/tickets for more information.