Sudbury Five draw first blood in playoff series with 105-96 win over Montreal Toundra

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Five coach praises full-team playoff win

Sudbury Five says they're ready for Montreal

The Sudbury Five have taken a 1-0 lead in their best-of-five Basketball Super League playoff series after defeating the Montreal Toundra 105-96 on Friday night at the Sudbury Community Arena before more than 1,275 fans.

The defending BSL champions entered the postseason as the second seed after a tight regular-season loss to the first-place KW Titans last weekend. Montreal, the third seed, had lost four of six meetings with Sudbury during the regular campaign.

Five withstand Toundra pushes

Sudbury jumped out to a 35-26 lead after the first quarter and stretched the advantage to 63-48 at halftime. Montreal battled back in the second half, cutting the deficit to single digits on multiple occasions, but the Five held on down the stretch.

Duane Notice led all scorers with 28 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-7 from three-point range, while adding 11 rebounds and five assists. Alex Kotov added 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting with three rebounds. Charlie Marquardt finished with 12 points, hitting three three-pointers, and grabbed six rebounds.

Tyquane Goard came off the bench to score 10 points on 2-of-3 shooting and converted 6-of-8 free throws in 16 minutes of action.

Tafari Beckford paced Montreal with 26 points and seven rebounds, while Jeremy Hayes added 17 points and Ketarrious Bouchum recorded a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds.

Five coach praises effort

Following the victory, Sudbury head coach Joey Puddister said he was pleased with his team’s performance despite areas needing improvement.

“Yeah, happy with it,” Puddister said speaking with reporters.

“Playoff wins are hard to come by, so a win’s a win. Obviously always going to be some stuff to clean up, but really happy with the effort.”

The Five lost the rebounding battle 48-39, a statistic that did not escape Puddister’s attention.

“Lost the rebounding war,” he said. “We started off slow and then cleaned it up. So, the goal tomorrow, not start off slow and clean that up right away and should handle it a little easier.”

Depth on display

Sudbury’s bench outscored Montreal’s reserves 37-26, with Devante Jamison providing 16 points and six assists with Goard’s contributions going well beyond the box score, according to his coach.

“Ty was huge for us,” Puddister said. “I don’t know. He took three or four charges, played great defense, talked, and just rebounded like crazy – It was awesome.”

Emmanuel Akot also provided a spark with 11 points in just eight minutes of action.

Kotov on Montreal’s physicality

Sudbury centre Alex Kotov, speaking through Puddister as translator, acknowledged the physical challenge Montreal presents.

“They’re just a super physical team,” Kotov said. “They’re going to play hard for 48 minutes, super aggressive. Yeah, we just got to be ready to play tomorrow.”

Kotov added that controlling the game’s momentum shifts was critical.

“I came out and controlled the game from the start,” he said. “Just a game of runs, like up and down. So, being able to stop those runs when they happen was important for us.”

Marquardt’s shooting night

Marquardt struggled at times from the field, connecting on just 4-of-13 attempts overall, but his coach expressed no loss of confidence in the veteran guard.

“For Charlie, we always have confidence the next one’s going in,” Puddister said. “We’re not intentionally going away from him because he missed a couple. Yeah, there’s no change like that.”

New-look Montreal

Puddister noted that Montreal’s style has evolved, presenting a different challenges than some of the regular-season matchups that saw Sudbury win four of six.

“Their style has changed a little bit since their coaching staff changed,” Puddister said. “They’re pretty adamant on going at matchups rather than running sets right now.”

The adjustment marks a departure from the Toundra’s earlier approach, forcing Sudbury to adapt on the fly.

Back-to-back test awaits

The series continues with a Sudbury Saturday night at home.

Puddister said his team’s depth should work in its favour on consecutive nights.

“Back-to-backs in general, and then like back-to-backs towards the end of the season, it’s just a grind, but they’re going through the same thing,” Puddister said.

The coach emphasized the importance of securing both home games to open the series.

“That’s can’t emphasize enough how important that is,” he said. “Just getting off to a good start in the playoffs. We have like a countdown in the locker room, six wins to a championship. We’re at five now, hopefully at four after tomorrow.”

Defending the throne

The Five have carried the hashtag #DefendTheThrone throughout the season as they pursue back-to-back BSL titles.

Puddister said his team’s focus never wavered from the opening tip to the final buzzer.

“We stayed engaged for 48 straight minutes,” Puddister said.

“Everybody was locked in and great energy from the tip to the finish,” said Puddister.

“Game won ‘check’ – #DefendTheThrone,” the team posted on social media following Friday’s victory.

“Let’s do it again tomorrow,” the team added in a separate post.

What’s next

Game 2 tips off Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Sudbury Community Arena that fans affectionately call ‘the barn.’

The series shifts to Montreal at the Centre Pierre Charbonneau for Game 3 on Wednesday.