Doug Herring Jr. nailed a three-point shot with 13.1 seconds remaining to give the London Lightning a 136-133 win over K-W Titans on Sunday at Budweiser Gardens.
Herring Jr. grabbed a Titans rebound and walked the ball up the left side of the court with just over 30 seconds remaining. With the crowd on their feet, he stopped just across half, and allowed the clock to tick down to 20 seconds left, drove into the key and dished off to his right to Ryan Anderson. Anderson took two steps, faked and fed a pass back to a wide-open Herring Jr. just to the left of the centre of the arc, where he unleashed a perfect shot.
“Ryan went to make a play and I saw my man leave,” said Herring Jr. “I just tried to create space. I mean Ryan’s been doing a great job in making plays and finding the open man and he was able to find me open.”
K-W had a final opportunity to tie the game, but the Lightning defence denied them a good look and London held on for their fourth consecutive victory and a 1.5 game lead atop the NBL Canada’s Central Division.
London’s overall defence in the game is something that Lightning head coach, Keith Vassell expressed concerns about afterward.
“Definitely defensively we were half-a-step behind on almost every possession. Tomorrow we have to make sure that doesn’t happen. I am confident we will be able to come back around.”
Anderson led the Lightning with 26 points, recording a double-double with 10 assists.
Royce White returned to the London lineup after missing three games for family reasons and added 22 points, five rebounds and nine assists.
Titans guard, Kevin Rogers led all scorers with 36 points on the afternoon.
The Lightning had won the first four meetings against K-W this season and had outscored them by 31 and 34 points the last two times the teams had played. Kitchener stayed with London all game long and took advantage of some excellent free-throw shooting. The Titans were 87.1 per cent from the line. London struggled, going 17-for-32. Both clubs shot over 50 per cent from the field.
The two teams meet up in less than 24 hours in Kitchener for a Family Day game. St. John’s will continue their road trip through Ontario on Monday as they meet the Express in Windsor.
In the only other NBL Canada game on Sunday, the Halifax Hurricanes added to their lead atop the Atlantic Division, taking down the Cape Breton Highlanders 108-104.
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