By Daniel Simpkin
The Tigers played their home opener against the UPEI Panthers at the Dalplex in Halifax on Friday, November 5th.
Both teams came out strong defensively and the score was kept low at 9-5 for Dalhousie through the first five minutes of play.
The Tigers maintained a slim lead throughout the entire first quarter. Alex Carson (Lower Sackville, NS) led the Dalhousie offence with 10 points, one rebound and one assist.
Rookie Caleb Sooley (Mount Pearl, NL) closed out the first quarter on a high note for the Tigers with a last second three-point buzzer beater.
At the end of the first quarter, the Tigers were narrowly ahead 17-13.
The Tigers came out with established momentum in the second quarter and another rookie guard, Nginyu Ngala (Montreal, QC), hit a quick three-pointer.
Panthers guard Isiah Ankra (North York, ON) was hot from the perimeter shooting 75% from downtown in the second quarter with 11 total points.
Playing in front of an excited packed house, Samuel Maillet (Moncton, NB) shut down a Panthers offensive push halfway through the second quarter and forced a shot-clock violation by Sam Chisholm (Bridgetown, NS). Soon after, Karami Scott (Malton, ON) got one back on the Tigers and drew a charging foul on Shamar Burrows (Nassau, Bahamas).
Due to an unfortunate mid-air collision at the rim, Tigers Malcolm Christie (Fredericton, NB) received a "flagrant two" penalty and did not return to play until the second half.
The Panthers took their first lead (29-28) of the game when Scott capitalized on some team momentum and hit a three-point shot from the right corner.
The scores remained tight at the half time break with the Tigers leading 36-31.
Coming into the second half, Maillet threw down a highlight reel dunk over the Panthers paint defence and gave the Dalhousie crowd something cheer about. At this point, the Tigers were steadily extending their lead over the Panthers with a score of 43-36 Tigers, with six minutes to play.
Alex Ruiz (Valencia, Spain) showed lots of grit for the Tigers after contributing 10 essential points on three lay-ups and made three free throws. All of which he earned the hard way by going straight at the Panthers defence throughout the entire third quarter.
Christie managed to redeem himself after the flagrant foul and came up with two huge back-to-back three-point shots and tilted the games momentum heavily in favour of Dalhousie as the teams prepared for the fourth quarter.
The score at the end of the third quarter was 66-49 for the Tigers.
Scott and Chisholm wasted no time getting the Panthers back on track scoring two threes in a row to start the fourth quarter and brought the game back within 11. Christian Tabiri (North York, ON) then battled through a row of Tigers and brought the opposing lead down to nine with a clever lay-in.
Carson continued to execute with lethal precision from the perimeter and scored a big three for the Tigers to get their lead back to 10 points.
The Tigers rode out the rest of the game carefully and did not allow the Panthers to manage a comeback.
The final score was 84-77 for the Tigers.
Alex Carson was awarded Subway Player of the Game honours after going 9-18 shooting with 24 points, three assists, and three rebounds.
Elijah Miller led the way for the Panthers, netting 23 points along with five rebounds.
The Tigers and the Panthers meet again tomorrow at the Dalplex in Halifax on Saturday, November 6th.