Jalen Harris leads Rattlers to comeback win over Alliance

Jalen Harris exploded for 31 points to help the Saskatchewan Rattlers (2-0) come back down 23 points and defeat the Montreal Alliance (0-2) 96-90. The Saskatchewan guard shot 50% from beyond the arc, threw out five assists and snagged three rebounds to go along with it. 

Harris wasn’t the only one to have a fantastic night, Forward Grant Basile would provide some much-needed backup.  Basile scored 27 points on 57% shooting, hit four shots from beyond the arc, and pulled down six rebounds. 

Despite the loss, Alliance Forward Jordan Bowden had a monster game. Bowden scored 34 points on 77% shooting; he would also knock down 6 threes as well. Bowden came up two points short of Alliances' all-time single-game points record, which was set by Dom Green (36 points) on May 29th, 2022, against Scarborough. 

Both teams were going shot for shot in the first quarter, and just when it seemed that no team could form a cushion, the Alliance would start to pull away near the end of the first quarter and end it off leading 23-17. Jordan Bowden led all scorers at the end of the first with seven points on 75% shooting from the field. 

Jordan Bowden continued his hot hand into the second and had the Rattlers, rattled throughout the second. Montreal kept up that same pressure right up to the final seconds of the quarter, where Ahmed Hill would hit a layup with six seconds left, then Bowden would immediately steal the inbound pass and hit a two-point jump shot to extend to 19 as they led 56-37 heading into the half. 

Jordan Bowden led all scorers at the half with 21 points on an extraordinary 90% shooting from the field.

Despite being down by double digits after the half, Saskatchewan didn’t let this discourage them going into the third.

“They were the aggressor. We talked about us being the aggressor and we also talked about, you know, not trying to get it all back in one shot,” Rattlers head coach Larry Abney said when asked about how he got the team ready for the comeback. “We talked about trust. We weren't trusting each other on defence, we weren't trusting each other on offence.”

“Once the trust started happening and you start seeing the extra passes, I think we missed our first couple of shots. But you can see the trust was there. And then once that trust happened, then we started to make a comeback.”

The third quarter is where Jalen Harris came alive. Harris would score 19 of his 31 points just in the third quarter to help cut the lead to 10 going into the fourth. 

The fourth quarter was the equivalent of the 12th round in a heavyweight boxing fight. Both teams were giving it their all to secure the victory. However, it just seemed that Saskatchewan had that little extra bit of fight in them as they chipped away at what was left of Montreal's lead and finally secured the lead with 3 minutes left of a free throw by Elijah Harkless. 

As the Rattlers approached that target score, Jalen Harris would once again come up huge for the team as he would be the one to hit the game-winning lay-up to give Saskatchewan its second straight win. 

Harris spoke after the game on what runs through his mind when approaching that target score, “Just executing, you know, it's about getting to the score, but the way you do that is being the best-executed team, most disciplined team,” Harris said. “So that's kind of the main focus that I'll try to preach out to our guys.”

What’s next for both teams?

The Saskatchewan Rattlers look to keep their winning ways up as they take on the Vancouver Bandits next Thursday. As for the Montreal Alliance, they look to claim their first win of the season next Thursday against the Edmonton Stingers. 

- CEBL -

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