Perhaps the Sudbury Five benefitted from a bit of a delayed spark.

Looking to snap a three game losing skid, the local NBLC (National Basketball League of Canada) crew posted a come-from-behind 123-119 victory over the Windsor Express in a contest that featured no less than 62 combined fouls and a player disqualification.

Unlike Friday night’s loss to the Syracuse Stallions, where the Five dug themselves a 10-0 deficit early and did not even break the goose-egg on the scoreboard until more than four minutes had elapsed, the home side traded shots with the Express early Sunday afternoon, finishing the first quarter tied at 25-25.

“When we have good energy, good vibes in the locker room before the game, we like to come out playing with tempo, playing in transition and getting out running,” said veteran Jeremy Harris, who paced the Sudbury attack with 32 points, with Jason Calliste just a bucket back at 30.

“We’re actually pretty good in half court (offense), but up court is easier to play in transition, when we’re flowing with the whole team.”

While a 37-23 Windsor run might have normally qualified as the story of the second quarter, this contest was marred by a skirmish which featured no less than five separate fouls (three technicals), as well as the ejection of Sudbury big Zena Edosomwan.

“Not having “Z” for the three quarters or whatever it is, we had to play smaller, we had to tweak some things and change the rotation a little bit,” noted Five head coach and general manager Elliott Etherington. “Z is 19 (points) and 13 (rebounds) a game, so you need to figure out a way to supplement that.”

“I think they all stepped up and we figured it out.”

Maybe so, but it didn’t sure happen instantly.

The Five were trailing 41-32 at the time of the incident (8:18 remaining in the first half) and were down by 14 at the half (62-48), a gap that grew to 21 points early in the third (69-48).

But an 18-5 Sudbury run sparked by key three pointers from Jason Calliste and Marcel White, as well as some timely conversions from the foul line as officials worked hard to keep the game in check, made things much more interesting at 74-66 midway through the third.

Still, it wasn’t until Calliste nailed a trey with 1:33 to play in Q3, making the score 83-81, that Sudbury enjoyed a lead that it last tasted in the opening minute of quarter two. In the end, the margin of victory would come in the dying minutes, the teams deadlocked at 111-111 with 104 ticks on the clock before the Five closed things off with a 12-8 sequence.

“We’re getting there; we’re definitely making strides in the right direction,” said Etherington. “We want to be a team with a free flowing offense, where the ball moves and we’re able to attack off the dribble. We’re doing that more the last two games.”

“In the last two weeks, I think we’ve really had an effort to execute.”

It’s easy to forget, given that we are almost in late March, that the Sudbury Five have only played ten games to date, posting a record of 4-6, just back of the KW Titans (5-4) and just ahead of the Windsor Express (2-5).

“We had a short training camp, so we’re still learning with each other,” said Harris. “We’re growing with each other every day. In practices, in games, it’s going to come together. It’s a long, short season – we’ll figure it out.”

Joining Harris and Calliste in double digits for the winners were Dexter Williams Jr (16), Evan Harris (16) and Marcel White (14) as the Five recorded a new season high with their 123 point outburst. Billy White was clearly the man of the match, offensively speaking, topping out at 40 points for Windsor, with Quinnel Brown (24), Marcus Lewis (17) and DeVonte Pratt (13) also contributing nicely.

More than anything, Etherington was pleased with the patience shown by his team, battling their way back into this game. “You can’t try and make it up all in one play; they haven’t come up with an 18-point shot yet,” he said. “You have to figure it out, possession by possession, and lock into what you’re supposed to do.”

“I thought we did a pretty good job of that, taking it two to three possessions at a time and getting done what needed to be done.”

Things quiet down a little after this run of three home games in the last four days, with only two matches on the slate for the Five this coming week, paying a visit to the high-flying London Lighting (9-0) on Thursday and returning home next Saturday to play host to the KW Titans.

“We want to build off this,” said Etherington. “It feels good to win, it feels good to make the comeback, it feels good to win a close game at home. We’ve got to take the stuff that we did well on both sides of the ball and build off that.”

“There’s still a lot of things to fix.”