April 21, 2034
Montreal Toundra soundly defeated by the Windsor Express in their final home game of the season
The Windsor Express have soundly defeated the Montreal Toundra on home turf by a score of 122 to 114. It has been a rough season for the Montreal Toundra, who end their inaugural season in the Basketball Super League (BSL) in last place, finishing off their season with nine wins and fifteen defeats. But there are a lot of positives to take from this season as well.
For the majority of their loses, the Toundra were in the game and were able to keep the score close. Many of them came down to the wire where they were defeated only in the final minutes or seconds of the game, and that shows a squad that is on the cusp of turning the tide and becoming a winning side.
See Also: Toundra beat Rogues with seconds to spare
Today, however, wasn’t one of their best showings, as Montreal fell behind early and struggled to keep pace throughout the match. As always, the Toundra showed great composure and strength to battle back and on several occasions, had themselves within a bucket of equalizing the score – but weren’t able to overpower the Windsor Express, who constantly squashed all attempts Montreal made at getting themselves back on level footing.
The first nine points of the day went Windsor’s way as Montreal seemed a tad rusty coming out of the gate. It has been a long season and perhaps morale was low within the team knowing that even a victory today wouldn’t get them out of the basement. Sport can be mentally challenging and losing games can weight heavy on a collective psyche. At the end of the day; someone had to lose for someone to win.
While the Toundra gave the impression of being a frustrated group on the court, the Express were dancing and singing, figuratively and literally, as they hammered the final nails into the Toundra’s coffin.
Meanwhile, Shaddell Millinghauss was having a strong day for the Express, putting up 29 points and 6 assists. Millinghauss was seemingly everywhere as he frustrated the Toundra up and down the court. Montreal’s Philip Flory was hot, sinking three-pointers all game long, but ultimately his efforts weren’t enough to lead Montreal to victory.
With the win, the Windsor Express move ahead of the Newfoundland Rogues for third place and are still alive in a playoff race that saw both the London Lightning and first place KW Titans clinch their post-season berths. Montreal though, will have to watch the post-season action from the sidelines.
Read More:
>> KW Titans take the win over Montreal Toundra in the final seconds
>> Tempers flare as Montreal loses to the London Lightning at home
>> Windsor Express hold on to beat Montreal at home
If there is a positive to this year, it’s that Montreal’s early season woes where they won just once in their first seven games, weren’t there at the tail end. In fact, the Toundra were pacing far better later in the year, and were able to string together consecutive wins several times, and were a pain in the side of the Newfound Rogues whom they beat three times in the final few weeks of the season.
Hopefully they can build on the Pyrrhic victories their sophomore had in stall for them, and the Toundra find themselves in a playoff spot next time around.
