Jonas Emilsson
www.KramMag.com

The Bishop Grandin Ghosts rolled out a smothering defense and a blazing quick transition game to earn a dominant 101-73 victory over the Lord Beaverbrook Lords.

The win moves the Ghosts to the top of the South division standings with a perfect 4-0 record while the Lords fell to 1-4.

Point guard Josh Daniel led the Ghosts with 18 points to go with a handful of assists while Connor Lemieux chipped in with 15 points and Randall Mosca added 14 points.

Lords’ Matt Thygesen scored a game-high 21 points and Josh Stewart added 19 points in a losing effort.

After an opening quarter that ended with the score tied at 25 apiece, the Ghosts opened up the throttle on their fast-break offense to pull away from the Lords. By the time the midway point rolled around the Ghosts owned a 49-37 lead.

From the midway point on it was all about the Ghosts’ ability to force turnovers and heading up-court at a dizzying pace for easy buckets.

“The kids ran the floor real well and we played good defense,” said Ghosts’ head coach Kevin O’Neill. “Our game all comes from our defense and running the floor. We put defensive pressure and create turnovers and then we can fast break.”

Spearheading the defense was the play of Daniel and Lemieux, who gave the Lords’ attackers fits with their non-stop pressure on the ball.

“I thought we really started slow, but we really picked up our defense and created turnovers and started running and that’s when we play our best,” said Daniel.

Despite the lopsided win O’Neill was still looking for areas to improve on as his team enters the downhill stretch of the season.

“Game in and game out we’ve been pretty slow starters,” he said. “We start taking over the rebounds, and once we took over the boards we start to run the floor, and really is what turned the tempo of the game.”

The Ghosts played the majority of their game without 6’5” post player Eddie Asamoah who found himself in foul trouble early in the first quarter.

Without the big man patrolling the paint the Ghosts were forced to play small-ball for much of the game, not that it made much of a difference in the end.