Fittingly, it was a three-point shot that won the Fraser Valley Bandits game on Friday night.
With a defender in his face, Malcolm Duvivier fired his team’s 18th shot from beyond the arc, capping a 97-81 win for the Bandits in a game they went toe-to-toe with the Alliance. from Montreal visiting the Langley Events Centre.
Alex Campbell hit a pair of free throws to put the Bandits within three points of reaching Elam Ending’s target score of 97.
“In my head, I thought I was going to finish it with a three, so when the chance came I was just ready to knock it down,” Duvivier said of his basket mentality. winner.
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“It’s just time to step up a gear. Great players are going to make big moves and I think we have a lot of great players in our squad so anyone can step in at any time. We all have this mentality; we are ready to win the game and send it home.
The win was a fourth straight win for the Bandits and took the team to 7-2 – good for a share of first place in the Canadian Basketball League Elite standings alongside Hamilton. For the Alliance, it was a fifth loss in a row as they remain winless on the road and saw their record fall to 3-7.
Fraser Valley shot over 56% (18 for 32) from beyond the arc, a better percentage than the Alliance managed from the field as Montreal was 30 for 68 (44.1%) but had struggling from downtown, shooting 5-for-18 (27.8 percent).
“We go into every game with the plan that if the shots are there, we’re going to knock them down. We shot every day and today was just the result of our preparation,” said Duvivier.
Seven different Bandits players have made at least one three-point shot.
The game started with the Bandits picking up the first 13 points en route to a 28-8 lead after one quarter, before extending their lead to 55-32 at halftime. The lead grew to 29 points in the third quarter before the Alliance finally found traction, reeling off a 31-8 run spanning the third and fourth quarters to cut the lead to six points.
And Montreal had the opportunity to come down to a one-possession game, but a missed three-pointer at one end of the field was followed by a pair of straight threes from Shane Gibson to get the lead back to a dozen. points and from there the Bandits were victorious.
“We knew they were due for a race sooner or later, we just hoped it wasn’t such a big race. We just stayed calm and collected. We’ve been in this type of situation before, we’ve been in tight games all season, and we stayed calm and were able to run and close the game,” Duvivier said.
“It’s human nature – maybe it’s me replacing guys too early, maybe it helped the team lose momentum – kudos to Montreal for fighting back. Again, thanks and respect to our guys for rebuilding the lead and sealing the game and making the plays to win,” Bandits coach Mike Taylor said.
“The game was easy for most of the match. Give (Montreal) credit for fighting back; we had to assert ourselves defensively again, make a few saves. And offensively, we had to stay in the system to create good shots for our team.
While Gibson led the team in scoring for the third game in a row, Maxie Esho and James Karnik each contributed with 16 while Campbell had 11 and Duvivier finished with 10.
“Whatever night they’re going to step in then and they’re ready to knock down shots and ready to make plays for our team. It’s really going to help us go further in the season and we’re just going to keep going. with the mentality of the next man, and whatever the night, we are going to celebrate them and go from there, ”said Duvivier.
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Karnik – a local Surrey bred made his Bandits debut after signing with the team and finishing with a record eight rebounds – while Esho was placed in the starting lineup with Fraser Valley missing a pair of key contributors to Thomas Kennedy and Murphy Burnatowski.
Esho was perfect on the field, making all seven of his shots. He also had five rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots.
“He was lucky to start and showed everyone what he could do. His effort was great, he’s athletic, he has good shooting touch, his effort on the boards is great. His versatility made us help and today was a really good game for him,” Taylor said.
The coach was happy that he was able to get the time of the 10 players on the field, especially since the team should face the Newfoundland Growlers less than 48 hours later, as both teams will play at Langley Events Center on Sunday, June 26 at 3 p.m.
Single match tickets are available for purchase at thebandits.ca/tickets. Fans can call 604-866-0529 or email tickets@thebandits.ca for any question or request relating to tickets.
The games are also available to view on CEBL+ live internationally.
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