A little home cooking has helped the Halifax Hurricanes turn their fortunes around.
After returning from a lacklustre four-game road trip in which they went 1-3, the Hurricanes have won three consecutive NBL Canada games at the Scotiabank Centre, including a 99-88 victory over the Island Storm on Sunday afternoon.
“It feels good to be home,” said guard Antoine Mason, who led the Hurricanes with 24 points on Sunday.
“We had a tough stretch on the road early into the season. We would’ve done much better if we had a week or so more together before hitting the road. But they put us in the fire early. We want to take care of home and we have a chance to. If we can take care of business at home, it’s all a plus for us.”
C.J. Washington, coming off a monster game Friday night when he scored 40 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in a win over the Cape Breton Highlanders, finished with 22 points and 10 boards against the Storm.
Ta’quan Zimmerman had 15 points and Renaldo Dixon came off the bench to notch 14 for Halifax, which improves to 5-3.
But much like Friday night against the Highlanders, Sunday’s matinee was anything but a cakewalk for the Hurricanes.
“We have definitely been tested the last two games,” Mason said. “But you want tough games, you want to be tested. You know down the wire we’ll have some tough games and into the playoffs. So we want to execute in these games and be ready for these type of situations later in the season.”
After a fast-paced first quarter, the Hurricanes built a 13-point lead into the second. But their shooting went ice cold and the Storm capitalized going on a 10-0 run to cut lead the lead to three.
Both the Storm and the Hurricanes only managed 18 points each in the quarter. They each shot just 37 per cent from the field in the first half, which Halifax led 48-43.
The teams found their range after intermission in a back-and-forth, fast-paced third quarter. The Hurricanes shot at a 50 per cent clip, punctuated by a pair of thunderous slams by Dixon, the second which pushed their lead to eight.
“Once we had the halftime speech, we knew our shooting would come back to us,” Washington said of his team’s resurgence in the third quarter.
“We just continued to take the shots. We thought eventually they would be going in. Some of our best shooters on the team started hitting the big shots and we were finishing around the rim.”
The Hurricanes’ inside game was dominant for a third straight game. Halifax scored 52 points in the paint on Sunday.
A relentless Island squad, led by longtime Horton high school and UPEI Panthers head coach Tim Kendrick, went on a 9-0 run to start the fourth and took its first lead of the game. Franklin Session had five points and a pair of steals during the furious stretch for the Storm.
But the Hurricanes — who were without leading scorer Billy White for a second straight game because of a leg injury — bent but didn’t break after the Island flurry. Mason, who had seven points in the final period, put a stake into the Storm when he drained a clutch three-pointer and the foul for a four-point play.
Halifax held the Storm at bay and played a possession game in running out the clock.
“We didn’t allow them to dictate what we wanted to do on offence in that quarter,” Mason recalled. “We found our spots and executed. But we need to get better on defence and figure out how to stop certain things. The pick and roll has been kicking our butt and they did it to us today. We’ll spend a lot of time on that in practice this week.”
Session finished with 20 points and 14 rebounds for the Storm (4-2). Andre Stringer led all scorers with 27 points.
The Hurricanes will continue their homestand Thursday evening when they host the Moncton Magic (4-3) at the Scotiabank Centre. Halifax has four home games remaining in December.
“This should carry some momentum for us,” Washington said. “If we can close out the month of December and get all of our wins at home, we’ll be good and ready for some big things in the new year.”
Glenn MacDonald
