SHERIDAN 94, NIAGARA 90

WELLAND, Ont. - The reality of playing in the deepest conference in the country is that the road to a successful regular season is paved - in large part - by winning games in someone else's gym.

It's true that the Sheridan Bruins men's basketball team (25-10, 15-2 OCAA) have thus far defended their home floor against fellow OCAA West schools, but with nearly a fortnight remaining in the conference schedule, they find themselves at the top of the table thanks to 7-2 record away from home.

And in their most recent triumph - a gritty 94-90 win over a Niagara squad that never folded -  they fell behind by double-digits in the second half, before a fourth quarter rally gave them a lead they would not relinquish.

"I thought at points in the game, we played really well," Sheridan assistant coach Nick Davis said. "We gave our guys a gameplan that was kind of new and they did a good job, for the most part, adjusting to it. But to me, the thing that we did the best was we were composed down the stretch, despite the fact that we were in hostile territory and things weren't always going our way."

Despite getting out to a quick start - opening the game on an 8-2 run - the Double-Blue found themselves in a nine-point hole by the end of the first 10 minutes, as Niagara strung together runs of 7-0 and 13-3 to lead 23-14.

Sheridan slowly chipped away at their deficit and capped by a 9-1 run, had pulled out in front 41-38, before a Niagara three-ball to end the half knotted the score at intermission.

The home side opened the second half on a 12-4 run to take early control and would push the margin as high as 11, before settling into a 73-63 lead going into the final stanza.

The Bruins would not go away though and when Jahmal McQueen opened the fourth quarter scoring with a three-pointer, it trigged a 14-4 run that brought the visitors level, 77-77.

Down the stretch the trio of McQueen, Michael Selkridge and Trevor Williams took over, combining to score 27 of the game's final 44 points.

Their offensive outburst helped to set up a near mirror image of the final moments of the first meeting between the two sides in November, with the visitors clinging to a two-point lead going to the free throw line with less than five seconds remaining.

Then it was Niagara's Matt Poirier who missed both free throws with 4.5 seconds remaining, giving Andrew Stephenson the opportunity to weave through traffic and hoist a 30-footer that kissed off the glass for the unlikely game-winner.

This time it was Sheridan's McQueen who cooly iced both of his foul shots, to put the Bruins up 94-90 with only 1.9 seconds on the clock.

Williams paced the club with a game-high 29 points, while Selkrdige (24), McQueen (20) and Roshean Keen (10) all hit double figures.

While certainly elated to emerge from a tough building with a win, Davis still has some concerns about the mental make-up of the club as they move into a critical point in the season.

"What troubles me about our team is that we don't play with any kind of killer instinct," he said. "You have a team down, you know you're playing well, but we go into these spurts where we just mentally don't focus well enough to close out teams. We're trying to be a championship team [but if] you're a championship team and you're up eight or 10 early, you extend it, you don't recede the lead. That's what we've been doing lately and it's been hurting us. Luckily for us we've been able to make some plays down the stretch and we defend well in times that we can get stops when we need them."

The Bruins will close out their home schedule with games against Lambton (February 16) and St. Clair (February 17) on back-to-back days.

Blue notes: The win was the 550th victory of head coach Jim Flack's career, moving his record to 550-205 (.728).

Source: Sheridan I.T.