The Montreal Alliance never gave up despite trailing by 13 points after the third quarter. But she still had to admit defeat in the first game in her history, Wednesday, in Hamilton.
Posted at 9:29 p.m.
His first opponent, the Honey Badgers, held on late in the game to win 80-72.
No one was quite sure what to expect from the Alliance for this first game. Take it for granted: the team didn’t look crazy at all on the field at the First Ontario Centre.
Perhaps a little nervous – we can understand that – Vincent Lavandier’s men came up against a good opposing defense in the first minutes of the match, struggling to create an attack and allowing four points on free throws. But things quickly turned around, with the Alliance holding a 21-18 lead by the end of the first quarter.
The aggressive Honey Badgers attacked with a little too much ease throughout the first half of the game. The Montreal troupe, struggling to counter their opponents, thus awarded 15 free throws, 11 of which were successful by the locals.
At halftime, the Montrealers were trailing 41-34.
The Honey Badgers widened their lead in the third quarter, taking a 61-48 lead, but the Alliance showed character and never stopped fighting. Thanks to two three-point shots from Laroche and Osbourne, added to six points from the field by Nathan Cayo and some fine defensive flashes, Lavandier’s troops managed to close the gap to 65-64.
On the Hamilton side, Christian Vital got up with two late three-pointers to put the hosts leading 71-66 when it came time to activate the Elam rule. The Alliance could not come back afterwards.
Ruler of Elam
The LECB is the only basketball league in the world to have adopted the Elam rule. When there are less than four minutes left in the game, the clock is put away for the rest of the game. At the next stoppage of play, we target a score to reach, which is the number of points of the leading team plus nine.