The St. John’s Edge had one of their best home-court defensive showing of the season Friday night.
Too bad they couldn’t find the offence to take advantage.
At Mile One Centre, the visiting Saint John Riptide nipped the Edge 84-82, denying St. John’s a victory that would have clinched the home side a spot in the National Basketball League of Canada playoffs.
It was a back-and-forth affair Friday, with plenty of lead changes, a total of 17 steals and eight blocked shots. And at no point, did either side hold a double-digit lead. But when the playing was done, it was the Edge who were on the wrong end of the teeter-totter.
St. John’s was up by eight points with under eight minutes left in the game, but saw its shooting go awry down the stretch. The Edge missed 10 of their last 14 shots, including six of seven three-pointers, allowing the Riptide to work their way back to the win.
Overall in the game, the Edge were seven-for-30 on three-pointers (23.3 per cent). That’s more than dozen percentage points below their season average.
The result drops St. John’s (20-17) out of a tie for first place in the NBLC’s Central Division with the London Lightning (20-16), who were idle Friday.
The defending champion Lightning play tonight against the K-W Titans, while the Edge get another shot at the Riptide 2 p.m. Sunday at Mile One.
The 84 points scored by the Riptide Friday equalled the fewest allowed by St. John’s in a game at Mile One Centre in 2018-19; the Edge had defeated the Cape Breton Highlanders 105-84 earlier in this season-ending homestand.
And it was the second-fewest St. John’s had given up in any game all season. The Edge had surrendered just 80 in an early December road game in Moncton, N.B., although they lost that one, too, falling 80-75 to the Magic.
On the other side of the ledge, their 82 points Friday was the Edge’s third-lowest output in any game during this campaign
Glen Davis had a team-high 18 points for St. John’s, with the Edge’s Olu Ashaolu recording 15 points and 10 rebounds. Dez Lee (15 points, nine rebounds) was a board away from joining Ashaolu with a double-double, while Murphy Burnatowski returned to the lineup after a one-game absence to deliver 14 points off the bench.
Frank Bartley put up a game-high 29 points, Marvin Binney had 17 and Jeremiah Mordi had 10 points and an equal number of rebounds for the Riptide (15-21).
