Shooting Stars match franchise scoring record in beatdown of Honey Badgers
It took over three minutes for the Scarborough Shooting Stars to finally score. But once the dam broke, the points came fast and furious.
The Shooting Stars tied their single-game franchise scoring record in a 106-90 win over the Brampton Honey Badgers at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre on Saturday, sending their GTA rivals home with a fourth straight loss.
Scarborough, on the other hand, picked up its fourth consecutive victory to improve to 11-7. The Shooting Stars are already locked into the Eastern Conference’s second seed.
The team’s scoring output matched the mark it set in the season-opening 109-106 loss to Winnipeg.
“Great game. Any time you can win by 16 you’re always gonna take it. So I thought we played terrific 99 per cent of the game,” Shooting stars head coach Devan Blair said. “It’s just [Target Score Time] is so funky sometimes. Target Score’s tough when you’re up that big. It’s just weird. And it got a little weird for us, but we’ll take it.”
Brampton, which now sits 6-12, is fighting Ottawa for the final playoff spot in the East despite placing fourth in the standings. Last-place Montreal will automatically play in Championship Weekend as host.
The BlackJacks beat the top-seeded Niagara River Lions 122-113 on Saturday, increasing their lead over the Honey Badgers to 1.5 games. Brampton still has one game left against Ottawa on the final night of the regular season.
“Tough loss. We’re fighting for our playoff berth so every game is a must win, so tough one. There’s still a chance for us and it’s just a matter of us regrouping and turning things around,” Honey Badgers head coach Sheldon Cassimy said.
A hot shooting night — Scarborough made 20 of its 40 three-point attempts — allowed the Shooting Stars to roll to a 96-64 lead entering Target Score Time. But Brampton proved scrappy with the clock turned off.
While Blair tried to rest his starters, Scarborough’s bench continually turned the ball over on offence and allowed the Honey Badgers to find some rhythm on the other end, making the game closer than expected.
Eventually, Blair was forced to bring leading scorer Cat Barber back into the game. In his first offensive possession back on the court, Barber beat Honey Badgers forward Zane Waterman from the corner and laid the ball home for the win.
“We gotta be better earlier on in the game so we don’t (give) such a big lead that we gotta dig ourselves out of a hole,” Waterman said.
The Shooting Stars started the game with a similar offensive slump when they went scoreless until the 6:36 mark of the first quarter. Barber broke the seal then too with a fallaway jumper, but Scarborough continued struggling offensively until there were about three minutes left in the frame.
Over the final 181 seconds, the Shooting Stars erupted for 12 points to take a 22-20 lead. Brampton was never able to recover.
Scarborough opened up a 55-38 advantage at halftime and led 80-52 after three quarters, essentially rendering the entire final frame as garbage time.
Barber paced the team with 26 points, including a six-for-nine mark from beyond the arc.
“I think Scarborough just did a really good job of getting open threes,” Cassimy said. “You see on the box score they were 20 for 40 for the game making threes, so they’re shooting at a high clip and it’s hard to guard when they have so many guards on the floor and they’re moving it around with their ball movement and shooting at such a high clip.”
Barber also chipped in five rebounds and four assists, Danilo Djuricic added 17 points and six rebounds off the bench and Jalen Adaway recorded an 11-point, 10-rebound double-double.
“I try to feel the game and get my teammates involved, but then when it’s my time to score it’s just up from there,” Barber said.
LJ Thorpe led Brampton with 22 points, while Waterman finally broke through late against the Shooting Stars to finish with 21 points and 13 rebounds.
Waterman had scored 28 points total in three previous games against Scarborough.
“I just didn’t really wanna force stuff. You wanna get stuff within the team, but if you can’t and other stuff isn’t working, you kinda gotta force it at the end,” Waterman said.
Davion Mitchell, who was traded to the Toronto Raptors from the Sacramento Kings earlier in the NBA off-season, was in the building.
Shooting Stars guard Kadre Gray missed the game for personal reasons.
The team’s biggest task now will be reintegrating its returning Summer League players into the winning formula it’s currently found.
“It’s gonna be an important week of practice and then we have two dress rehearsals for the playoffs next weekend. So, trying to find some semblance of continuity is kind of our next challenge,” Blair said.
Scarborough ends the season series with wins in three of four games against its GTA rival.
But if the Honey Badgers can find their way into the playoffs, a fifth do-or-die contest will be in store.
Up next
Both teams will face the Vancouver Bandits in their next game, with Brampton hosting the B.C. club on Thursday before Scarborough welcomes them on Friday.
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