A horrendous start was too much for the Halifax Hurricanes to overcome Tuesday in Moncton.
The host Magic outscored the Hurricanes 80-40 in the first half, including 48-17 in the second quarter, on their way to a 130-108 win in front of 1,838 fans at the Avenir Centre.
"When you get in that big of a hole it becomes really hard to come back from it," said Halifax head coach Ryan Marchand. "We're still right in the mix of figuring out the group we have and figuring out our rotations so it's still very early in the season. We're only three games in so there's no reason to panic. But we definitely do want to keep making strides and that's not a pattern we want to have at the beginnings of our games."
Moncton had four players hit for 20 or more points, led by Corey Allmond with 24. Marcus Lewis, Maurice Jones Sr. and former Hurricane Billy White all landed exactly on 20. Wayne McCullough also had 16 and Jeremiah Mordi 11.
Halifax's Antoine Mason led all scorers with 25 points, Ta'Quan Zimmerman had 18 and Chris Johnson 17. Joel Kindred added 13 points and 10 rebounds.
"We just gave Moncton everything they wanted in the first half," Marchand said. "A lot of the stuff we talked about wasn't executed properly so in the second half we just had to play tougher. That was by going one possession at a time and once our focus came (together) from doing that, we were able to play better in the second half."
The loss was the Hurricanes' second straight on the road and drops their season record to 1-2. The Magic improve to 3-0.
If there is any kind of way to find a silver lining, it's that Marchand should be able to use the flaws in the game to teach some direct lessons to his players. The Hurricanes' next game is on Thursday at home against the Island Storm.
"In a game like this one, no one comes out feeling good about it," Marchand said. "It stinks for everyone. It stinks for the players, the coaches and the fans. Right now we're in the process of building and trying to take it one game at a time."
