Alliances lose to Rattlers in their final home match of the season

Verdun – July 29, 2022
Saskatchewan Rattlers 82 at 72 Montreal Alliances

The Montreal Alliances tonight played host to the Saskatchewan Rattlers in their final home game of their debut season in the CEBL.

The Alliances came into the match on a four game losing streak, most recently dropping three straight games against the Newfoundland Growlers last Friday and Sunday in Verdun and Wednesday in Newfoundland, while the Saskatchewan Rattlers lost their last game against the Guelph Nighthawks. Montreal are now assured to finished in last place this season, following the three defeats at the hands of the Growlers, but given that this is the squads first season in the championship, the teams focus is most assuredly on the future.

Montreal came close to winning in Newfoundland, holding a slender four point lead right until the dying moments of the match. Montreal forward Abdul Mohamed made a  turn-over on a bad pass that was stolen by Blake Francis of the Growlers, who dropped the ball back for a three point jump shot from the Growlers Shaquille Keith, which brought the Growlers to within one point. Francis again played a pivotal role in the layup that lead to Jermel Kennedy scoring the winning bucket on the night. Heartbreak for the Alliances who again struggled with turn overs.

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This is the second match between the Alliances and the Rattlers in CEBL history, with Saskatchewan winning the first contest by a score of 98 to 86 on June 26 at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatchewan. It is also the final regular season match for the Rattlers while the Alliances will finish off their year in Ottawa against the BlackJacks on August 1st.

The story was almost the same. In the first quarter, Saskatchewan started off the scoring with a three point shot, and Montreal replied with one their own. From there on, the defensive game at both nets was strong, and points hard to come by. The score line remained close to the buzzer, with slight advantage to the Rattlers.

In the second quarter, Montreal would fall back into the troubles that have haunted them in recent times – turn overs and penalties. Both of which resulted in score chances that the Rattlers were than happy to capitalize on. At one point, the Alliances went down by a dozen points and were left to scramble back up. Ending the half with an eight-point deficit, training Saskatchewan by a score of 28 to 36.

The third began where the way the second had ended – fouls. Costly ones, as the score began to drift away from the Alliances. Furthermore, Montreal’s struggles to put up points from free throws was starting to add up. But there was still plenty of fight left in the Alliances, were battled hard to get back in the game. Osborne found his groove and started hitting three pointers, getting Montreal back within five with just under four minutes to go in the quarter. But the fouls continued, and Saskatchewan kept on racking up the single pointers. A combination of questionable referring and fouls kept giving the Rattlers free throws. And they weren’t missing many. The score at the end of the third quarter, was 60 to 49 in favor of the Rattlers.

The fourth was a hard fought and physical affair. A lot of contact between teams. Again though, Montreal waited until the game hit Elam time before they really started to come on strong. Had they had played that way for the entire quarter, the result might have swung the other way. With Emal set to 81, Montreal needed to score 21 points before Saskatchewan could score 9. Montreal mounted a great offensive push, forcing the Rattlers into errors and turn overs at both ends of the court.

Saskatchewan needed just two points to reach the Elam limit, and would earn the chance to finish the game at the free throw line. The first ball sank, but the second bounced off the rim as the Alliances stayed alive – heading back down the court to score another two points. On the next play though, the Rattlers would slam home a rebound to cap oft the match. For Montreal, it was a matter of too little, too late – because at times, they looked to be the better team.

Montreal’s newest signing, Elijah Ifejeh, made his debut with the team. The 6’7″ forward, who played for Southeastern Louisiana University, looked good in his first match – and was constantly noticeable. Ifejeh is a Montreal native, which must make signing with his home-town that much sweeter. The Alliances have several injuries, including to Ashley Hamilton, who plays a key role in Montreal’s offense.

More: Newfoundland Growlers defeat the Montreal Alliance again

Despite this being the final home game of the season, Montreal still has one more match to look forward to, when the NBA’s Toronto Raptors face the Boston Celtics sometime in October at the Bell Center. An official date has yet to be announced and tickets are not yet on sale. This will be the first pre-season NBA game in Montreal in four years. In 2018, the Toronto Raptors defeated the Brooklyn Nets by a score of 118 to 91.

The Montreal Alliances faces the Ottawa Blackjacks on August 1st, in Ottawa, to cap off their inaugural season.

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