EDGE LOSE TO WINDSOR

The St. John’s Edge dropped the first game of their five-game road trip to the Windsor Express by a score of 123-116 on Wednesday night at the WFCU Centre in Windsor, ON.

This was a different looking Windsor team than the Edge saw on the weekend at Mile One Centre. The Express had the services of Juan Patillo and Ryan Anderson back in the lineup for this one and it showed early on what an impact these two players would have on this game. The Express got off to a 9-2 start with Ryan Anderson accounting for 4 of those 9 points. As the quarter got to the middle stages, the Edge came alive with contributions from Junior Cadougan and Obie Oleka, who threw down two big dunks to keep the Edge in the game early on. After the teams exchanged stops, the quarter would come to a close with Windsor up 29-19 after the first.

In the second, the newest addition to the Edge, Russell Byrd, would bury a triple early on to cut the deficit to just 7. After a couple of stops, the Edge starting centre Glen Davis would find himself in a little bit of foul trouble forcing the change and with that Windsor would take advantage down low as they would stretch their lead back up to 11 with just over 7 minutes to go in the half. Following another Russell Byrd triple, the Edge would put a stop to the Windsor offence and take advantage of a couple of turnovers to cut the deficit to just 6 points at the half (50-44).

Coming out of the break, the Edge would look to get back in this one with help from Glen Davis and Dez Lee who combined to score 11 of the team’s 27 points in the quarter. Just as the shooters for the Edge were starting to find their stroke, Windsor’s shooters would do the same and extend their lead to as many as 15 with just over one minute remaining in the third quarter. After three quarters of play, the Edge would trail 86-71 with just 12 minutes to play.

With Windsor holding a solid lead throughout most of the fourth quarter, they would get into some foul trouble late which would send Ryan Anderson to the bench after fouling out. Russell Byrd would continue his solid play in his return to the St. John’s Edge lineup, as he would convert on a four-point attempt, then hit all three free throws after being fouled again from beyond the arc. Following a couple of Dez Lee free throws, the Edge found themselves trailing by just two possessions with less than a minute remaining. On this night the comeback was not meant to be as Windsor would hit two free throws late to finish this one out by a final score of 123-116.

For the Edge, it was a welcomed sight with Russell Byrd returning to the team after signing on February 15th. Byrd would drop a team-high 25 points off the bench, shooting 4-for-9 from beyond the arc. Dez Lee would drop 23 points on the night moving his season totals up, and the Edge would get a huge fourth quarter from newcomer Shaquille Keith as he dropped 16 of his 18 points in the final 12 minutes.

For Windsor, they were led by Horace Wormley who scored 27 points and dished out 14 assists to help his team pick up the win.