Ottawa BlackJacks Take First Place in East With 79-60 Win Over Brampton Honey Badgers
Deng Adel’s 19 points led the Ottawa BlackJacks (6-5) to a dominant 79-60 win over their fellow Eastern Conference Brampton Honey Badgers (5-6) on Tuesday night.
After a quiet three quarters, the forward woke up in the fourth, scoring 10 points in the final frame of the contest, finishing with 19 points, five rebounds, a steal, and two blocks.
He was joined by Thomas Scrubb who nearly tallied his first double-double of the season with 14 points and a season-high nine rebounds. Ottawa had two other double-digit scorers in Jackson Rowe and Maxime Boursiquot who put up 13 and 11 points respectively.
On the other side, Brampton was held to a season low 60 points, handily outmatching their previous low of 75 against Winnipeg. Usually, a steadying presence for the team, the backcourt pairing of Christian Vital and Koby McEwen struggled mightily in this loss. The duo combined for 21 points on 8-23 shooting and eight turnovers. Vital was the lone Honey Badgers player to score in double figures, as no one else outside of McEwen scored over eight points.
“We did such a good job on Koby [McEwen] and [Christian] Vital on the ball screening,” said BlackJacks head coach James Derouin post-game when reflecting on their defensive effort. “It really put pressure on them to give it up…we had two guys on them every chance we got.”
Turnovers were the name of the game early in this contest, and surprisingly, it wasn’t the league leading BlackJacks (16.6 TOPG) who were being sloppy with the ball, it was the Honey Badgers. The defending champions averaged 14.6 giveaways coming into the matchup but were over halfway there after committing eight in the first quarter alone.
Ottawa got up seven extra shot attempts as a result of those errors by Brampton and sparked two separate 9-2 runs on route to a comfortable 25-12 lead for the BlackJacks heading into the second.
That lead only got bigger throughout the next quarter as Ottawa began running the ball down the throat of the Honey Badgers’ defence. The BlackJacks finished the half with 22 points in the paint, a +14 advantage over their opponents.
All of their 16 points in the quarter came from inside the arch or the charity stripe, with the team shooting an efficient 53 per cent on two-point shots going into the break. Not surprising considering Ottawa makes over 50 per cent of their two-point attempts this season, ranking in the top-half of the league.
Their efforts attacking the basket saw that 13-point lead grow to 18 for the BlackJacks, up 41-23 at half-time.
Brampton however didn’t seem ready to fold as they showed some of that championship calibre play coming out of the break. They started the third on a 9-0 run to cut Ottawa’s lead down to single digits, 41-32 less than three minutes into the frame.
It was looking like that was as close as the Honey Badgers were going to get as they allowed another 11-4 run by the BlackJacks to extend the lead back up to as many as 16 points. However, Brampton did end up outscoring Ottawa by eight points in the frame, and it was the – quiet until now – backcourt duo of Vital and McEwen who did most of the damage.
They combined for nine of their team’s 21 points in the third, and it was McEwen who sparked some life back into the team when he knocked down an and-one triple while also converting on the four-point play.
Honey Badgers faced a 54-44 deficit as the fourth quarter began, and despite that being a less than ideal position, it was also setting up the possibility for payback. Going back to opening night, Brampton was the team with a double-digit lead late in the game before Ottawa – on the back of Kadre Gray – came back to eventually win the contest.
A takeover performance from someone on the side of the Honey Badgers was looking necessary for the team to return the favour with a comeback of their own, but unfortunately for Brampton fans, that wasn’t in the cards.
The BlackJacks were the ones who ended up taking over as they extended their lead back up to 17 points going into Target Score Time.
Despite struggling in his return from injury with just eight points, it was Gray – just like last time – who ended this contest, albeit in less dramatic fashion than his previous game-winner. The guard drove through the lane and knocked down a jumper plus the foul, ending the contest 79-60 the final.
Ottawa now has sole possession of first place in the Eastern conference after breaking what was a four-way tie with Brampton, Niagara and Scarborough. If you ask Adel however, he’s not focused on that, his attention is on the BlackJacks protecting home court down the stretch.
“We’re taking it a game at a time,” Adel said. “Every game at home we have to try and win. At this point of the season, we honestly have to win every home game, that’s going to break any tiebreakers, so this was a good win.
Ottawa will have a short rest as they return to action on Thursday to continue their three-game homestand, taking on the Saskatchewan Rattlers.
Brampton on the other hand will be off for over a week, until July 5, where they’ll return to face another Eastern conference opponent, hosting the Niagara River Lions. Honey Badgers head coach Antoine Broxsie sees this break as a way for his team to evaluate and determine their identity in the second half of the season.
“One of the things we have to do is question who we are as a team,” Coach Broxsie said post-game. “Going forward…we have to figure if we’re going to come together from this or try and do it one-on-one.”
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