The scoreboard at Budweiser Gardens had fans doing a double-take.
After a 104-90 victory over the K-W Titans on Saturday, Mar. 5 the score was reset to zero for the first-ever meeting between the London Lightning and the Lansing Pharoahs only to have the teams run it right back to a 104-90 final as the Lightning won for the second time in two days and fourth time in four games this season.
The Pharoahs are a part of The Basketball League based in the United States and teams from the NBL of Canada are playing cross-over games with TBL clubs throughout their 2022 seasons.
On short rest the bench was big for London.
The top four leading scorers on the Lightning against Lansing all came off the bench.
Terry Thomas is quickly growing into one of the top sixth men in the NBLC. He had 19 points in 21 minutes played.
Mariek Isom, Jordan Jensen-Whyte and Amir Williams each had 12 points for London.
Unlike Saturday’s game against the Titans that saw the Lightning have to come back from an early 23-point deficit London never trailed by more than two in the first quarter and built a 58-46 lead by halftime.
Lance Adams of the Pharoahs led all scorers with 28 points.
The Lightning held Lansing to just 38.5 percent shooting from the floor. London shot 48.1 percent.
London also out-rebounded the Pharoahs 51-41.
Lansing has only played NBLC teams to start their season and are winless through three games losing to K-W and Sudbury.
The Lightning now switch back to NBLC opponents for their next four games.
The K-W Titans return to Budweiser Gardens on Mar. 9 for the third meeting between the teams. London won a 110-108 squeaker in Kitchener-Waterloo to open the season and then beat the Titans by 14 in their second matchup.
At 4-0 the Lightning now have a two-game lead over K-W atop the NBLC standings.