Titans toppled by endless Energy

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The Edmonton Energy didn’t bother waiting around until the fourth quarter to pull away from the Vancouver Titans last night.

The Energy took control of the International Basketball League contest early and cruised to a 144-119 victory in front of a small crowd of about 200 at MacEwan College.

The win improved the Energy’s record to 3-1 on the season, while the Titans dropped to 3-6.

"I thought we did a lot of good things," said Energy head coach Paul Sir. "It shows you the number of weapons we have on the floor.

"But I think one thing that’s not going to show up on the scoreboard was the play of Alex Steele. They have a lot of good guards and Alex did a great job defending them and staying in front of them."

Led offensively by Skouson Harker, who had 22 points in the first half alone and finished with a game-high 30, the Energy had too much inside for the Titans to handle.

The night before the two teams were separated by a pair of baskets after three quarters, but the Energy went on to post an 18-point victory.

In the teams’ second encounter last night, once again neither team shot the ball exceptionally well from the floor early on, but with the inside game of Harker and Lee Scruggs, their outside shooters weren’t required to get hot.

Harker, 31, who is a player-coach in Britain during the winter, dominated inside as the Titans had few forwards who could contain the six-foot-eight, 240-pound product of Raymond.

Harker’s inside game allowed the Energy to pull away from the Titans in the second quarter, then coast for the rest of the contest, never really challenged by their opponents.

The Energy led by six after the first quarter, which they extended to 22 by half time and 26 after the third.

Next weekend, the Energy play host to the defending league champions Bellingham Slam in a pair of encounters at MacEwan, starting Friday.

"We have a lot to work with," Sir said. "We had two, good solid victories. This Vancouver team lost to Bellingham last week by nine points. So this is a good, team, it’s not like this team couldn’t play. So we’re excited now."