Home court advantage was not an advantage in any way in the first-round NBL Canada series between the London Lightning and the K-W Titans.
On Sunday, the visiting Titans completed a perfect sweep by the road team in the best-of-five series with a 109-93 victory at Budweiser Gardens that sends K-W into round two and ends the 2018-19 season for the Lightning.
The teams stayed close for the first five minutes after the opening tip, but back-to-back three-pointers by the Titans’ Damon Lynn and Tramar Sutherland began to open a gap that London wasn’t ever able to close.
The Titans led by eight points at the end of the first quarter and by 11 at the end of the second and third quarters.
Once again, K-W’s Flen Whitfield led all scorers with 29 points and 10 rebounds. Sutherland also recorded a double-double with 23 points and 12 rebounds.
Jalen Babb-Harrison was the leading scorer for the Lightning with 18 points.
As in games 1 and 2, many of London’s top players ran into cold spells on Sunday.
Only four players reached double digits and the Lightning shot 40 per cent from the floor, and just over 31 per cent from behind the arc.
The Lightning failed to advance past the first round for just the second time in their eight-year existence. London has won more championships (four) than any other NBL Canada franchise.
The Titans are in their third year as a franchise and are headed to the second round for the first time ever.
K-W will face the St. John’s Edge, who knocked out the Sudbury Five on Sunday in the final game of their series.
Halifax will meet Moncton in the Atlantic Divison finals.
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