HALIFAX, N.S. – The Halifax Hurricanes stormed out of the locker room Sunday, had a big third quarter and tied their first-round playoff series with the Island Storm.
The Storm held 23-20 and 45-42 quarter leads going into the halftime break at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax. The Hurricanes hit some more shots in the third quarter and the Storm missed some of the looks it had been nailing. The Storm didn’t handle the adversity well, head coach Tim Kendrick said, leading to turnovers that the Hurricanes converted into easy buckets.
Halifax outscored the Island squad 41-18 in the third quarter to take a 83-63 lead to the fourth en route to a 107-85 victory.
“Basketball is a momentum game. They took it from us in the third quarter and ran with it,” he said. “Now it’s our job to come in Thursday night at home and really look to come out tough early.”
The best-of-five series is now tied 1-1 with Game 3 Thursday and Game 4 Saturday at the Eastlink Centre at Charlottetown. Game time is set for 7 p.m. for both days.
Kendrick is taking a positive approach to splitting the first two games and taking home-court advantage away from the Hurricanes with Thursday’s 108-102 victory in the opener.
“If you would have told us on Wednesday, or any day before that, that we’d have a split coming out of Halifax, we’d be pretty happy about it, I think,” he said.
“We felt we had to get one of those two and we got it,” he added. “Now we come home with a chance to play well on Thursday night.”
It will be the first home game for the Storm since Sunday, March 25. They finished with four straight road games to complete the regular season and then the first two playoff games have been in Halifax.
“I think the boys are excited about playing at home,” Kendrick said.
Antoine Mason had a game-high 26 points for the Hurricanes on Sunday while Clifford Clinkscales had 11 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds. Billy White chipped in 18 points and eight rebounds while Tyrone Watson had 15 points, nine rebounds and five assists. Mike Poole scored 16 points off the bench.
Chris Anderson had a team-high 17 points off 6-for-7 shooting for the Storm while adding seven rebounds. Carl Hall and Du’Vaughn Maxwell each scored 16 while hauling in nine and six rebounds, respectively. Franklin Session had 14 points and 13 rebounds while Kemy Osse went for 11 and nine, respectively.
Each of the Storm’s starters logged 36 or more minutes as the squad continues to fight to dress a full lineup.
Tyler Scott (ankle) missed Sunday’s game and remains day-to-day. Chris Johnson missed the game with a shoulder injury sustained in Game 1. The team will wait and see how it reacts to treatment this week to see if he is available for Thursday.
