It was a back and forth, tightly contested game Saturday, March 16 at the Sudbury Community Arena between the visiting Derby City Distillers and the Sudbury Five.
Both teams came out looking to assert themselves defensively in the first quarter, and both teams managed to do that in the first, with Derby City holding a small 24-23 lead over Sudbury thanks to contributions from the likes of Tchumsy Wright with 18 points in the game and Graddy Kanku, with 25 points of his own in the game.
The second quarter was equally as close as the first was, with the Distillers scoring 36 and Sudbury scoring 34, and Derby City still held a lead by a score of 60-57 heading into the halftime break.
Sudbury made a comeback in the third quarter, scoring 34 points while holding the Distillers to just 24 points of their own in the quarter, and thanks to performances from AJ Mosby Jr., with 32 points in the game, and Keljin Blevins, with 18 points in the game, the Five held a 91-84 lead heading into the fourth and final quarter.
Derby City showed, however, that they weren’t going to give up easily and saved their best quarter for last, scoring 41 points, including a basket at the last second to pull out a 125-123 victory over the Sudbury Five.
After the game, when asked what positives the Five can take away from the game, Keljin Blevins said, “I think we showed spurts, we showed moments of how good we can be. Playing together, playing as a team, and getting on the transition. We got a great group of guys, very talented, and like I said, we showed what we can do. We just gotta figure out a way to put together a full 48 minutes, and once we figure that out I think we’ll be a hard team to beat.”
After the game, Sudbury Five Head Coach and General Manager Logan Stutz said, “I told the guys all year, if you don’t come out and play hard, nothing matters, and that’s been our struggle all year, just coming out and playing hard basketball.”
The Five have a week off before taking to the court next on Saturday, March 23, when they play at the Sudbury Community Arena vs. former Five player Dexter Williams Jr. and the KW Titans with tipoff scheduled for 7 p.m.
Super fan Robert McCarthy covers Sudbury Five games for Sudbury.com. Got a question for Robert? Email it to [email protected].
