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It was almost like a case of deja vu in downtown Halifax Wednesday night.

Exactly one week after the Halifax Hurricanes beat the KW Titans 120-115 at the Scotiabank Centre, the teams were back at it on the same floor. This time the Hurricanes came through 114-107 for a second straight win.

"We went over a lot of film getting ready for this game," said Halifax's Jordan Washington. "We watched an hour and a half of film of all the messed up things we did the last time we played them. We took that into consideration and we came out and played hard today."

Much like the first meeting, the teams kept it tight all through the first half. Neither side ever built a double-digit lead and the Hurricanes took a 49-43 advantage into the break.

A hot start to the third quarter is when the tide turned this time around. The Hurricanes built a 14-point lead in the initial moments after the half and then managed the cushion the rest of the way. The closest KW came to coming back was seven points on a couple of occasions.

"We normally have bad third quarters so we talked a lot about that at half time," said Halifax's Tremayne Johnson. "We really emphasized that in the locker room. We knew if we came out with a better third quarter and got more of a lead we could put the game away."

Halifax leading scorer Antoine Mason took two early fouls but still ended up with 33 points. Washington provided some excellent minutes off the bench, especially in the first half, and gave the Hurricanes 19 points and 10 rebounds. C.J. Washington (18 points, 10 rebounds), Joel Kindred (15 points, 11 rebounds) and Johnson (11 points) also made important contributions for the home team.

"Our bench always has to come in with fire, especially me because I need to be the energy coming off the bench," Jordan Washington said. "Everyone's bringing something right now."

Leading the Titans were Akeem Ellis (30 points), Damon Lynn (24), Ed Horton (18) and Nigel Tyghter (11)

"We had to buckle down on defence; that was our key," said Johnson. "The game is about runs. They're going to have theirs and we're going to get ours but you have to keep getting more momentum than the other team and then keep it going. You also need to capitalize when they miss and that's what we did tonight."

After a cold start to the season, the Hurricanes continue to inch forward. The back-to-back wins over KW improve them to 7-14 and gets them another tiny step closer to the St. John's Edge for second place (11-7) in the Atlantic Division.

"Our chemistry is a lot better than it was at the start of the year," Johnson said. "We're moving the ball a lot better and getting more open shots and we're not forcing it as much. We're still forcing some but it's better. We just have to make sure we keep passing the ball.

"And it's also going to be defence that gets us there (to the playoffs). We have to keep working on that."

The Hurricanes are back on their home court on Thursday against the Sudbury Five.

"We're going to go home, get some rest and we're going to watch more film," Jordan Washington said. "We want to be ready again and keep things going."