Newcomers were at least as important as returning veterans as the Sudbury Five opened the 2025-2026 BSL (Basketball Super League) season in exactly the same fashion they closed out 2024-2025: with a comfortable home court win.

Winning three of the four quarters of play and dropping the third by only a 31-30 margin, the Five were workmanlike in posting a 126-114 victory over the visiting Lake Erie Jackals on a night in which the most recent championship banner to be raised to the rafters of the Sudbury Arena was unveiled.

A nice mix of the old and the new featured Keyshawn Bryant atop the Sudbury scoring parade with 32 points, followed by returnees Duane Notice (25) and Charlie Marquardt (22), with fresh face Alex Kotov (21) and former K-W Titans defensive wizard Jaquan Lightfoot rounding out the double digit contributors.

Trenton Temple (23), Samad Bailey (19), D'Andre Johnson (18), Matthew Csuhran (16) and Franklin Hinton Jr (14) countered for the Jackals, with all but Johnson coming off the bench to do so.

The contest marked the first BSL coaching victory for new Sudbury bench boss Joey Puddister, his team placing second in three-point baskets (15 v 10) and in rebounds (51 v 39), but outscoring the Jackals 30-23 from the charity stripe and outshooting the visitors, overall, 46.7% to 40.4%.

The Five are back in action on Saturday night at home as the Montreal Tundra make the trek to northern Ontario, opening their schedule that night and travelling to Kitchener-Waterloo the next day.