The Saskatoon Mamba saved their best for last.<\/p>\n
The Saskatoon Mamba saved their best for last.<\/p>\n
Trailing by as many as 16 points in the fourth quarter, Saskatoon erupted for 32 points in the final frame and completed a dramatic comeback to defeat the Ottawa BlackJacks 96-94 on Monday night at Merlis Belsher Place.<\/p>\n
After controlling stretches of the opening half and taking a 49-58 deficit into halftime, the Mamba appeared in trouble when Ottawa stretched its advantage to 82-66 early in the fourth quarter and later built a 13-point cushion at 85-72.<\/p>\n
Instead, Saskatoon responded with its most complete stretch of basketball of the night.<\/p>\n
The comeback started inside. Jaden Bediako delivered a series of momentum-changing plays around the rim, converting dunks, creating second-chance opportunities and getting to the free-throw line. Trey Townsend added timely scoring and a key three-pointer while Devont\u00e9 Bandoo chipped in crucial free throws as the Mamba slowly cut into Ottawa\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n
With just over three minutes remaining, Ottawa still held a 94-91 edge after a Javonte Smart three-pointer. That\u2019s when Saskatoon closed.<\/p>\n
Tevian Jones calmly stepped to the line and knocked down all three free throws after being fouled beyond the arc, tying the game at 94-94. On the next decisive sequence, Ottawa missed at the basket, and Townsend converted a floating jumper to push the Mamba ahead 96-94 with 3:27 remaining. Saskatoon\u2019s defence did the rest, securing the rebound after Ottawa\u2019s final opportunity to complete the comeback victory.<\/p>\n
The win capped a resilient performance after Ottawa controlled much of the middle portion of the game.<\/p>\n
The BlackJacks outscored Saskatoon 36-22 in the second quarter and extended their lead further in the third behind the play of Smart, Matthew Cleveland and Justin Harmon. Ottawa led 76-64 entering the final 10 minutes and looked poised to leave Saskatchewan with a road victory.<\/p>\n
But Saskatoon\u2019s fourth-quarter surge changed everything.<\/p>\n
After opening the game with a strong first quarter and carrying a 27-22 lead after 10 minutes, the Mamba showed they could win in a different way \u2014 by surviving adversity, tightening on defence, and executing late when every possession mattered.<\/p>\n
Saskatoon improves after one of its most dramatic wins of the young season, while Ottawa leaves Merlis Belsher Place wondering how a double-digit fourth-quarter advantage slipped away.<\/p>\n
The win improves the Mamba\u2019s record to 5-5. Next action for Saskatoon is on Thursday when they travel to Niagara to take on the River Lions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Saskatoon Mamba saved their best for last. The Saskatoon Mamba saved their best for last. Trailing by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739,247259],"class_list":["post-739817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa","tag-saskatoon-mamba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}