It was a game featuring the best team in the NBL Canada’s Central division against the best team in the Atlantic division — and it didn’t disappoint.
In the end, the Moncton Magic defeated the London Lightning 105-97 in Moncton, N.B., to hand the Lightning just their second loss of the season and put an end to a seven-game Lightning winning streak, which is the longest in the league this year.
The lead changed hands 12 times over the course of the game and the teams sat tied on the scoreboard on 11 separate occasions.
The Magic wound up pulling away late in the final quarter to improve their record to 7-2. London is now 8-2 and still sitting with the best record in the league.
All five Lightning starters hit double-digits in scoring and Anthony Gaines Jr. provided some large support off the bench as he poured in 18.
Randy Phillips had 15 points for London, Mo Bolden scored 14 and had seven rebounds. Xavier Moon chipped in 12 and Garrett Williamson and Marcus Capers each had 11 for the Lightning.
Omar Strong also chipped in 13 points off the bench to round out the scoring for the Lightning.
Both teams shot roughly the same percentages from the field but London struggled from the foul line making just 47.1 per cent of their free throws.
Moncton’s Wayne McCullough led all scorers with 27 points. The Magic also out-rebounded the Lightning 57-39.
London went 1-1 on their first extended road trip of the season. They defeated Halifax 112-101 on Tuesday night as Mareik Isom fell a rebound shy of a double-double with 24 points and nine boards. Moon had 21 points for London in that game.
The Lightning have a week off before going up against the K-W Titans at Budweiser Gardens on Jan. 30 at 7 p.m. London is 2-0 against K-W this season. The Titans currently sit in last place in the overall league standings with a record of 2-9.
The teams will play in Kitchener-Waterloo two nights later.