MONTREAL, QUEBEC - A steal got the ball in Alain Louis’ hands in transition and an alley to Isiah Osborne sealed the Alliance victory.  Montreal defeated the Fraser Valley Bandits 89-72.  Montreal advanced to 4-10 with the Bandits at 9-6. 

A two and a three from James Karnik followed by a two and a three from Kyle Adnam.  That’s how the Bandits started the game and they pushed to a 10-2 lead over the Montreal Alliance.  Karnik scored nine points in the first quarter to lead the Bandits and following his quick five at the start of the quarter, Murphy Burnatowski, Malcolm Duvivier and Maxie Esho got their touches to maintain a Fraser Valley lead.  Montreal started to chip back with the play of Ashley Hamilton and Nathan Cayo who combined for 11 points in the quarter.  At the end of the first quarter, Fraser Valley led 28-20.

Osborne started the second quarter with a jumper followed by a bucket from James Jean-Marie, and the Alliance started to further chip away at the Bandits lead.  Montreal out-scored Fraser Valley 21-12 in the quarter but it wasn’t until a Dominic Green technical free throw as time winded down that they took their first lead of the game.  Osborne finished with 12 points in the first half while Karnik recorded 14 points for the Bandits.  At the half, Montreal held a slim 41-40 lead.

Montreal pushed their lead to double-digits in the third quarter.  Hamilton and Cayo started off the scoring then the guard trio of Green, Osborne and Louis took over.  Osborne looked for his shot and made a series of jumpers as Montreal pushed their lead to 62-51.  From then on, Louis got to the free throw line on consecutive trips and the Alliance pushed their lead to 15.  Osborne pushed his points total to 17 going into the fourth quarter.  The Alliance led the Bandits 67-52 going into the fourth quarter.

Fraser Valley started the fourth quarter hot with a jumper from Campbell and Burnatowski and four points from Karnik to cut the deficit to nine.  The Alliance responded pushing back to out a 15-point lead before four points from Gibson, a three from Campbell and two Louis free throws put the game into Elam time.  Montreal led 80-67 going into Elam time with the target score set at 89.

Laroche scored five points in Elam time disrupted by a Campbell three, putting the Alliance up 87-72.  Louis got the ball in transition and found Osborne in the air to put it down and seal the Alliance victory.  Montreal defeated the Fraser Valley Bandits 89-72. 

Osborne led the Alliance with 22 points, five rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block.  Cayo added 16 points, seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block.  The third of six Alliance in double-digits, Laroche scored 15 points while both Louis and Hamilton finished with 14 points. 

Karnik finished with 20 points, the most on the Bandits, to go with his eight rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block.  Campbell added 17 points, six rebounds, an assist and a steal.

Alain Louis talked about their mindset going into this big game, “It’s now a seven game season.  We need every single one of them.  We knew we had to come out and punch them in the mouth and that’s what we did.”

Fraser Valley Head Coach Mike Taylor talked about the performance from the Bandits, “we’ve got to keep going, we had an opportunity tonight, give credit to Montreal, they played with great energy.  I think after we controlled the first quarter we let the crowd get into the game and credit to the Montreal defence, the pressure, the physicality, I think our offence we had too many one or two pass possessions and that played into the hands of the Alliance, but again, let’s give credit to Montreal they played well, got a big win and we just have to keep going.”