This is not the scenario the Windsor Express had envisioned.

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This is not the scenario the Windsor Express had envisioned.

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After gaining a split in two road games to start the championship series, the Express came home for back-to-back games with a chance to claim the Basketball Super League.

Title hopes aren’t over, but it will have to come on the road for the Express after Wednesday’s 95-88 loss to the Sudbury Five before a crowd of 1,652 at the WFCU Centre.

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“We’re not out of it yet,” Express guard Latin Davis said. “We’re only down 2-1 (in the best-of-five series). That’s why there’s a Game 5.”

However, the Express need to win at home on Friday in Game 4 in order to send the series back to Sudbury for a chance to win the deciding fifth game on Tuesday.

“That’s the frustrating part,” Express head coach Bill Jones said. “I understand how hard it was to go to Sudbury and win a game. Now, we come home, the friendly confines, and we just didn’t get it done. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. Now, on Friday, it’s win or go home for us.”

Windsor’s offence never really got on track in Wednesday’s game. The Express grabbed a four-point lead with just under three minutes left in the opening quarter, but could not carry it to the buzzer.

Sudbury closed the first quarter with an 8-0 run to take a four-point lead and the Express were chasing the rest of the game.

“I think we beat ourselves,” Davis said. “A lot of us were open looks, we just missed.”

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Windsor shot under 40 per cent for the game and missed 27-of-34 attempts from three-point range.

“We were getting our shots we wanted, it just wasn’t falling in the first half,” Express guard Mike Bruce said. “We were just missing.”

For the second game in a row, the Express were also missing six-foot-nine, 285-pound centre Vincent Boumann, who sat out with an ankle injury. He took part in warmups on Wednesday, but sat out the game.

“Our perimeter game wasn’t there and when that happens, we have Vincent, we slow it down, get the ball inside and pound it down to him a couple times, but he wasn’t available,” said Jones, who hopes to have Boumann back on Friday.

Bruce caught fire in the fourth quarter scoring 18 of his game-high 24 points to get the Express to within one point.

However, whenever things got tight, the Five always seemed to have an answer on offence and it was usually from long range.

“Just a lot of breakdowns on defence,” Davis said. “We also missed eight free throws. A lot of mental breakdowns on defence. They also had 12 offensive rebounds that led to key points, threes, and we just have to clean those up.”

Davis finished with 15 points in the game as well as Lydell Elmore, who also added 17 rebounds. Markus Golden finished with 12 points and Cameron Gaines added 10 points for the Express.

“For me, I’m 59 and started playing basketball at the age of 12, and you have to look at it as this game is over,” Jones said. “We’ll look at the film, but it’s part of history. Now, we have to look to the game on Friday.”

jpparker@postmedia.com

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