In their final home game of the season, the London Lightning defeated the Halifax Hurricanes for the third consecutive time at Budweiser Gardens. With the 110-102 victory, the series heads back east to Halifax for Game 6 on Thursday, where London will play for their second consecutive NBL Championship, and fourth in seven years.
London withstood an 11-2 run early in the fourth, to shut down any Halifax hopes of taking Game Five.
Doug Herring Jr. led the way for the Lightning, hitting 10 of his 15 shots and finishing with 27 points. Julian Boyd continues to take full advantage of his increased role, hitting 4-for-6 from three-point range, and finishing with 22 points. Joel Friesen-Latty and Kyle Johnson were both strong off of the bench, grabbing 18 and 14 points respectively. Garrett Williamson chipped in a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
“It was a big game… a must win for us as our last game at home. Now we have two days to regroup and we gotta win one on the road,” said Herring Jr. after the game. “We were able to come home, we got a nice rhythm going, we were still focused on defence and now we have to bring that same energy and intensity and put the ball in the basket on the road.”
Definitely true, given that so far the home team has won every game in the series.
“We stayed in control of the game even when it wasn’t going well. We are very confident going back out there, we have to win one, they have to win two… the pressure is on them at home,” said Lightning Coach Keith Vassell. “We have seen each other five times, there aren’t a lot of adjustments left to be made… now it all comes down to heart and we have an abundance of that.”
The Lightning get their first shot at closing out their fourth championship on Thursday at 6pm in Halifax. Game seven will go Friday night at 6pm if necessary.