The London Lightning won for the second time in two nights, stretching their winning streak to five games with a 119-102 win over the Niagara River Lions on Saturday night.
After beginning the year with two wins in their first six games, the defending NBL Canada champions will head into 2018 just one game out of first place in the Central Division.
London beat Niagara for the second time during their streak. They have also knocked off Windsor, Kitchener and the first-place St. John’s Edge and that effort has new head coach Keith Vassell feeling impressed.
“We are beating good teams,” Vassell said after the game. I thought that our defence was good, we have some lapses still but overall, we put on a lot of pressure and made it difficult for them to do certain things. On the offensive end we shot the ball well. Ryan (Anderson) came out on fire. He kept hitting big shots for us – he had nine threes. We are playing well as a team. We had 38 assists on 45 field goals. That’s a lot. We are moving the ball well. We are just grooving.”
Anderson led all scorers with 31 points, but helped to set the tone early by pouring in 14 in the first quarter, pushing the Lightning out to a 33-27 lead.
Anderson admitted that he felt motivated going into the game.
“Some guys say some things about being better shooters than other guys, so I wanted to come out here and make a statement, that’s motivation for me,” he said.”But as a team I think that was a great collective effort. We are really starting to get into a groove, you can see it and feel the energy, it’s good vibes.”
Royce White topped 20 points for the second straight night. He had 25 in London’s win over Windsor on Friday and recorded 21 on Saturday along with nine rebounds and eight assists. Garrett Williamson also had 21 points in the game.
In his second game of the season, Doug Herring Jr. put up a double-double with 10 points and 11 assists.
The Lightning and River Lions will meet on Wednesday in St. Catharines for the fifth time this season. Niagara won the first matchup, but London has taken the three games since.
The Lightning will play their next home game on Friday, January 5 at 7 p.m. against the K-W Titans.
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