Sudbury Five drop Game 2 of BSL finals as series shifts to Windsor

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Sudbury Five assistant coach after Game 2 of finals

Sudbury Five player excited for the final

Sudbury Five make the SBL final for the first time

The Sudbury Five couldn’t replicate their late-game magic Saturday night, falling 104-87 to the Windsor Express in Game 2 of the Basketball Super League (BSL) finals at Sudbury Community Arena.

The best-of-five series is now tied 1-1.

Five struggled late

After a back-and-forth battle through three quarters, the Five struggled in the fourth, shooting just 5-for-19 from the field and missing all seven three-point attempts. JD Miller led Sudbury with 25 points, while Jelani Simmons added 21.

Windsor, playing without injured ‘big man’ Vincent Boumann, spread the offence effectively, with six players scoring in double digits – including Mike Bruce with 20 points and Latin Davis with 19.

“They made some very strong adjustments, I’ll give them a lot of credit,” said Sudbury assistant coach Denis Gauthier, who spoke in place of head coach Logan Stutz in the post-game press conference.

“With Boumann missing, [Lydell] Elmore did a really good job protecting the rim, and they just had a lot more energy than we did.”

The Five, who won Game 1 in overtime (103-100) on Thursday, were outshot in every category in Game 2 – field goals (47.6% to 41.3%), three-pointers (44.4% to 27.8%), and free throws (73.7% to 68.8%).

Sudbury coaching staff still optimistic

Despite the loss, Gauthier remained optimistic.

“We’ll come back,” he said.

“We had a really great shootaround this morning, but we came out a little flat. Our guys are strong. I know we’re resilient. We’ll figure this one out.”

Sudbury guard Ja’Myrin Jackson, formerly a player for Windor’s squad, saw increased minutes off the bench, finishing with nine points in his 21 minutes on Saturday.

‘Our guys love going to Windsor’

The Five will look for a stronger performance as the series shifts to Windsor for Games 3 and 4 at Windsor Family Credit Union Centre on Wednesday and Friday, both tipping off at 7 p.m.

“Our guys love going to Windsor, we love going to that arena, and we were just talking about that today,” Gauthier said.

“We need to steal one there, obviously.”

If necessary, Game 5 will return to Sudbury on April 29 at 7:05 p.m.