August 4, 2025
Calgary Surge outlast the Montreal Alliance in Verdun
With their spot in the playoffs confirmed, the Montreal Alliance set about hunting down a higher finish in the standings – but ran into a red hot Calgary Surge squad. The Alliance themselves are hot on the heals of both the Ottawa Black Jacks, who will be in Verdun to take on the Alliance this Wednesday, and the Scarborough Shooting Stars – both of whom are within striking distance.
The Alliance are currently playing in their most successful season in franchise history, still with four games, include tonight’s match up with the Calgary Surge, to play. In their last outing, the Alliance put the hurt of the Brampton Honey Badgers – beating them by twenty points and ending their playoff aspirations while securing their own.
See Also: Alliance beat the Honey Badgers, clinch playoff spot
However, the Calgary Surge are currently comfortably sat in second place in the Western Conference (14-7) behind only the league leading Vancouver Bandits.
The opening moments of the game went exactly as the Montreal Alliance needed them to go. They were first of the ball, making buckets and preventing the Surge from entering their paint. Things were going smoothly. Calgary were sluggish to start the game – but they woke up once the Alliance starting racking up points, and by the time the buzzer sounded to end the quarter, the Calgary Surge and Montreal Alliance were at a standoff. Tied.
The second quarter saw a continuation of the first, where the two squads were fairly equal and the points on the scoreboard reflected that. The action was fierce and physical and the two teams traded buckets, matched each other of the three pointers and were practical equal all through the quarter. Again, at the buzzer, nothing separated the two squads. This was a tightly contested and fun match up.
Following a half-time show from Shah Frank, on fan appreciation night, the Alliance and the Surge renewed their battle. Much like the first half, the teams matched other pound for pound, punch for punch and bucket for bucket. Montreal was hanging with the big dogs from the Western conference and as the lead switched hands over and over, there was a great sense around the Verdun Auditorium that the Alliance were for real.
That was all about to change though.
Midway through the final frame, the Alliance gassed out and completely fell apart. Suddenly, they were giving balls away and their passes were being picked off one after another, and the Calgary Surge were taking advantage of it all. By the time the game had reached the target score period, Calgary held an eleven point lead. The Surge needed nine more to hit the target score with Montreal required twenty. That’s a massive task.
Montreal’s comedy of errors continued on, as the Surge made it look easy, cruising to the finishing line where Sean Miller-Moore slammed home a winning dunk – his second second in consecutive games, no less. Montreal looked defeated, as if they had given up or more likely, had simply given everything they had all game long and the gas tank was now fully on empty.
“I think toughness was the deciding factor,” said Montreal Alliance head coach Jermaine Small. “We just gave up,” he cut to the chase. “As soon as they punched back, I think we just gave up.”
“Hopefully, we learn from this quick,” he continued. “We have a massive game Wednesday, so, yeah, we’re going to watch tape and build off that.”
Read More:
>> Lionel Messi shines as Inter Miami defeat CF Montreal at home
>> Halifax Tides FC earn first win over Ottawa Rapid FC
>> Montreal Alliance thrash the Edmonton Stingers to stay unbeaten
Again, the Alliance showed that they can hang with the leagues best teams. However, there’s something that prevents them from taking that last step. Under coach Small, the Alliance have continued to grow into a strong side, and hopefully that progress continues into the final games of the season and into the post season. Only time will tell.
The Montreal Alliance continues its pursuit of home court advantage when they face the Ottawa Black Jacks in both of their next two games, Wednesday night at home then again Friday in our nations capital. The Calgary Surge are next in action on Friday when they welcome the Saskatchewan Rattlers to Alberta.
