Balanced offence, smothering defence leads Alliance to dominant win over BlackJacks

The Montreal Alliance (2-4) used smothering defence and a balanced attack to defeat the Ottawa BlackJacks (1-4), 104-89, Tuesday night from TD Place.

Chris Smith led Montreal with 21 points, including the game-winning layup in Target Score Time.

Smith was one of four Alliance players who scored at least 16 points as Ahmed Hill scored 17, Shaquille Doorson dropped 16 (on 6-for-7 shooting) and Jordan Bowden had 20 coming off the bench.

“Today was a really good exhibition of what we could be,” said Alliance head coach Derrick Alston Sr. of his vision of how he wants his team to play.

Bolstered by their balanced offence, the Alliance were great defensively Tuesday night, holding the BlackJacks to just 41.2 per cent shooting from the floor and just 9-of-27 from three-point range.

Also, helping with the Alliance defence was they didn’t turn the ball over as much as they did last week.

“We had a week of practice and we just really tried to concentrate on our defence and not turning the ball over,” Alston said. “We felt like our first game against them at home, we just gave them a lot of opportunities to beat us and they ended up beating us. So, today we just really wanted to take care of the ball, which I felt we did.”

The Ottawa star duo of Isaih Moore and Brandon Sampson were effectively neutralized by Montreal’s stout defence, holding them to a combined 26 points, with the majority of the damage from those two coming from Moore in what was a far more interesting Target Score Time than it should have been.

The Alliance comminated Tuesday’s contest, leading by as many as 36 points, but when Target Score Time came around and all Montreal needed to get to was 104, leading 95-67 when the game clock turned off, the Alliance looked like they were trying to give the game away.

Ottawa opened Target Score Time on a 17-3 run and, in total, outscored Montreal 22-9, with Moore scoring 10 of the 16 points he scored in the game during that time, alone.

It was a case of too little too late for the BlackJacks, however, who squandered a brilliant 33-point performance from Tyrrel Tate coming off the bench.

Defensively, Ottawa looked to miss assignments and make things altogether too easy for Montreal to get to their spots.

“We have to cut off the highway to the rim,” said BlackJacks head coach James Derouin. “They’re finding all different ways to get in the paint … and we focused on that in practice but somewhere along the line with some of the new lineups and new guys that we tried it didn’t look in sync on both ends. It looked a little discombobulated out there, but we’ll get to work on that and get everybody integrated.”

Montreal entered the second half of the game in cruise control, leading 56-34, thanks to a second quarter that, essentially, saw them put the game away.

Following a tight opening quarter that saw the BlackJacks lead 20-18, the Alliance began the second period on a 15-4 run and finished it with Hill scoring 12 of Montreal’s final 14 points in the last 2:08 of the half, pumping Montreal’s lead to over 20 points.

“We got stops and we got in transition,” said Hill of his team’s second quarter surge. “A lot of shots fell for me and for other guys, we got stops in a row … and that all really opened the game up for us.”

Just about the only negative for Montreal Tuesday came in the third quarter when Maxime Boursiquot unfortunately was forced to exit the game with a left shoulder injury. Hill also had an injury scare when he took a charge in the third, but while he was slow to get up, he was seen smiling on the bench and started the fourth quarter.

“When we get back we’ll re-evaluate him and take a look,” said Alston of Boursiquot. “But as of right now I’m not sure [about his status moving forward].”

Tuesday’s game featured the first all-female Canadian officiating crew to work a professional men's basketball game as part of the BlackJacks’ Women in Sports night.

“I thought they did a great job with the emotions of the game, the ups and downs,” said Alston of the officiating. “For the most part the game was under control, nothing too crazy happened and I thought they did a really good job.

“It’s always good to see that. Because, of course, they can do the job like any other group of men can do it and they did a good job and hopefully they can do it again.”

Added Derouin: “Every time someone asks me about this, the next step is it just becomes not a thing. To me, those are three quality officials. I wasn’t thrilled with some of the calls, but that certainly had nothing to do with the fact that they’re male or female.”

Up Next

Following this home-and-home series between the two sides, the Alliance will head home to welcome Jahvon Blair and the Niagara River Lions Thursday, while the BlackJacks will hit the road to take on the defending champion Scarborough Shooting Stars. 

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