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Solid inside game proves too much for Vancouver to handle

It was a different look, but essentially the same team that hit the floor last night dressed up as the Edmonton Energy.

The players who worked so hard to put out a competitive product as the Chill last season, only to have it tainted by an owner who blew town, were back out last night hosting the Vancouver Titans in their home opener.

And in front of a modest crowd at MacEwan College, the Energy defeated the Titans 114-96. The two teams face each other again tonight.

"It’s a nice way to start," said Energy head coach Paul Sir. "I like what I see. What I like is that we have the potential to be a great methodical team. When we’re methodical and don’t rush, we’re tough to stop. We have a lot of weapons. We have guys that can shoot, big guys inside that can score, we’re physical on the glass and we showed tonight, when we’re physical, we can defend."

The principals are back from last season. Forwards Steve Sir, Lee Scruggs, Antwon Mills and Andrew Parker once again provide the nucleus for the Energy in the frontcourt, while Alex Steele and JR Patrick run the point. But they do have some talented new faces in the form of hulking centre Kevin Shand, versatile forward Skousen Harker and guard William Funn.

Last night the Energy’s inside game proved to be too much to handle for the Titans, as they ran away from the contest in the fourth quarter. Steven Sir led the way offensively with 26 points, while Harker had 23 and Parker added 20. Parker brought the fans to their feet with a couple of high-flying dunks, including an alley-oop where he seem to come down from the clouds.

"It’s great having a lot of big, strong gentlemen," smiled Patrick. "It’s great having that presence inside. That was our main focus going into the game was trying to get the ball inside, knowing that they didn’t have anybody that can handle our big guys.

"It’s always good to get a win. I thought we made a lot mistakes in that second quarter, but we were able to gain our composure, come out hard and establish our inside pressure on them."

Neither team shot the ball particularly well and no one was able to get into a groove, knocking down outside shots consistently.

Down the stretch, the Energy turned to their inside game with Parker and Shand getting dirty in the paint.

At six-foot-10, 275 pounds, there is nothing subtle about Shand’s game.

The Toronto native, who played his college basketball with Duquesne University before bouncing around a number of minor professional circuits was making his IBL debut and finished with a memorable 13 points.

"The good thing about this team is that now we can go inside," Sir said. "Last year we really couldn’t. Now we can look to a guy like Kevin Shand who takes up huge amount of space and loves the contact. He’s a battler and Skousen really showed off his inside game as well. So I like the inside, outside game we’ve got."

The Titans, meanwhile went cold in the fourth quarter and didn’t have the size to challenge down low. They may have run out of gas as well as they were limited to 18 points in the fourth quarter, an extremely low amount in the offensively-orientated league.

"It was a tough game for us," said Titans head coach David Petroziello. "I don’t know what our shooting percentage was, but I don’t think it was very high. Edmonton is a good team, they executed a lot better then we did today.

"We had a lot of travel in our bodies, we got into the city at about 4:30 p.m. It makes it difficult, but the bottom line is that these guys are pros and we have to be able to come out and execute. They did better than we did tonight and they deserved the win."

DEREK.VANDIEST@SUNMEDIA.CA