A weekend in Halifax which started out dismally for the Moncton Magic ended in a more cheerful manner.
Less than 48 hours after dropping a 108-104 decision to the host Halifax Hurricanes on Friday night – thus snapping the Hurricanes’ five-game losing skid – the defending NBL Canada champion Magic rebounded with a gritty 95-88 victory Sunday afternoon at Scotiabank Centre.
“It’s never good to have two games in three days as far as your body goes. But I think it was good for our team,” said Marcus Lewis, who paced the Magic with 17 points on Sunday.
“We had a good day of practice yesterday to get us mentally tough. A weekend like this is good for our chemistry and it showed this afternoon. We locked down more on defence today. We gave up a lot of late baskets and a lot of late threes in the third quarter (Friday). I felt we did a really good job running them off the line and staying locked in with our defensive principles.”
Halifax had struggled mightily through its first seven games – winning just one – before locking down defensively and limiting the Magic to under 40 per cent shooting in Friday’s victory.
Buoyed by a strong first half and tenacious play in the fourth, the Hurricanes led 78-74 on Sunday following back-to-back three-pointers from Cliff Clinkscales and Joel Kindred with under seven minutes remaining.
Moncton, though, came out of a timeout on a 10-0 spurt. Jason Calliste, fresh off the Magic bench, collected 11 points in the final five minutes. He scored on a fast break and, after Wayne McCullough stole the ensuing in-bound pass, knocked in an easy layup. His long-range three-pointer with 1:10 left put Moncton ahead 93-86, all but sealing the victory.
“Jason’s huge,” Lewis said of the veteran Canadian point guard, who turns 30 next week. “He has shot for over 40 per cent in his entire career, from high school to college to the pros. He’s going to knock down shots and we expect him to knock down shots.
“He might not always get the minutes he should be getting or wants to get but when he comes in, he plays and he always comes up big.”
Calliste finished with 14 points in the game. Jeremiah Mordi had 15 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists for the Atlantic Division –leading Magic (6-2). Ronald Delph added 14 points while Denzell Taylor tallied 11 to go with 10 boards.
Kindred scored a game-high 19 points for the Hurricanes, who are 2-8 versus the Magic in their 10 previous regular-season matchups. Tremayne Johnson and C.J. Washington had 15 points apiece.
Each team had its ebbs and flows throughout the game. Halifax went on an 8-0 run late in the first quarter before back-to-back three-pointers from Moncton’s shortest player – five-foot-seven Maurice Jones Sr. – and tallest – seven-footer Nick Evans – gave the Magic a 28-25 lead after 15 minutes.
Moncton’s shooting went inexplicably cold in the second quarter and Halifax took advantage.
After the Magic pulled ahead 34-30, the Hurricanes went on an 18-2 run spearheaded by their captain. Clinkscales hit Washington on an alley-oop pass and the Halifax centre put away the slam. On the next possession, Clinkscales stole a Moncton pass and tried to connect with Johnson on another alley-oop. While that didn’t convert, Johnson still managed the basket and was fouled in the process. He sunk the foul shot for a three-point play.
The Magic, meanwhile, missed 12 of their next 13 shots before Mordi drained a three-pointer with 1:27 remaining in the first half. Halifax took a 50-41 lead into the intermission.
Halftime came at an opportune time for Moncton.
“We have a lot of vets on the team and lot of guys who have been in this league for multiple years,” Lewis said. “It was about us being pros. We just can’t stop playing when we’re not making shots. We had to try to get to the line, try to get a basket. I know I didn’t shoot the ball well in the first half so I put an emphasis on attacking in the second half and I feel like we did that as a team, too.”
The Magic came out of the break on a 21-9 run and regained the lead thanks to Lewis’s hot hand. On consecutive possessions, Lewis drained a three-pointer and then put away an emphatic slam on a clear break to the basket. The 33-year-old power forward had 13 points in the third as Moncton outscored Halifax 30-18 in the quarter.
“We should’ve had that game but we gave it back to them in the third quarter,” Hurricanes forward Chris Johnson said. “It’s tough but we’re all learning and we are getting better as a team. Teams are going to make runs. We had a chance to blow it wide open in the second quarter.”
The Hurricanes (2-7) conclude their three-game home stand Tuesday evening when they host the London Lightning. They will travel to Newfoundland and Labrador this weekend for a pair of games – Friday evening and Sunday afternoon – against the St. John’s Edge.
Johnson is confident Halifax has turned the corner after its inauspicious start.
“I feel like we’re getting there,” said the 31-year-old from North Preston. “Our last two games, our defence has played well. We did things right in the first half and we showed some fight in the fourth.
“It’s a testament for where we were in the beginning of the year to now. We are two different teams and we seem to be getting better every game. Moving forward we will be all right.
“We have to continue with the defence but we need to execute much better offensively. I feel like our defence is coming along. Now it’s time for our offence to catch up.”
