For a moment or two, it looked as though the Sudbury Five might fall victim to the same kind of second-half comeback they used to beat the Windsor Express last weekend.

But despite watching their 21-point halftime lead pared to just three at the WFCU Centre in Windsor on Saturday night, the Five finished strong to defeat the Express once again, 117-104, improving to 7-4 this National Basketball League of Canada regular season.

Jaylen Bland scored 26 points, topping the 20-point plateau for the ninth straight contest, while Jarryn Skeete had 24 and Marlon Johnson 22, to go with a game-high 18 rebounds for the Five. Braylon Rayson scored 13 of his 17 points in the final quarter, also collecting seven assists in Sudbury’s fourth straight victory.

Chris Jones, the lead architect of Windsor’s second-half surge, scored 13 in the third quarter and nine in the fourth, en route to a game-high 29-point performance. Kirk Williams Jr. had 21 and Derrick Nix 20 for the hosts, who fell to 5-5.

Sudbury used its up-tempo offence to set the tone early, leading 10-0 at one point, while the likes of Johnson, Brady Skeens and Carl Lewis III established a strong presence under the glass.

Skeens went on to collect four points and eight boards, while Lewis scored 10 and grabbed five rebounds.

Sudbury led 31-16 after one quarter.

A standout shooting performance by Skeete, in just his second game in a Five uniform, saw him go five for five from three-point range, and six for six from the field overall, to start the contest. His 12 points in the second quarter helped Sudbury take a convincing lead to the locker room.

Windsor started the third on a 12-5 run, however, and despite a timely put-back by Johnson and threes by both Bland and Skeete, Sudbury’s lead had been eroded to nine points by the end of the period.

The Express weren’t done there. A three-point play by Jones, followed by a trey by Alex Johnson, who poured in nine of his 12 in the fourth, shaved the Five’s lead to 88-86 with more than nine minutes remaining.

That was as close as they got. Marlon Johnson hit a three, then Rayson added another and set up Johnson for a big windmill jam to give the locals an 11-point cushion.

Things got heated down the stretch, lending the game playoff-like feel that Sudbury head coach Logan Stutz had predicted. Stutz and his Windsor counterpart, Bill Jones, even got involved, but in an attempt to defuse the situation, after the Five’s Dexter Williams Jr. took exception to a foul by the Express’s Ryan Anderson, drawing a crowd of players and staff.

A late three-pointer by Sudbury’s Josiah Moore only put an exclamation point on his team’s victory.

The Five finished with 51 rebounds compared to the Express’s 41, and doubled their hosts in second-chance points, 16-8. Windsor held an edge in field goal percentage, 47.5 to 46.7, but Sudbury was more efficient from beyond the three-point arc, 42.5 to 32, and from the free-throw line, 76.2 to 69.

The Five have little time to savour their victory, as they visit the KW Titans in Kitchener on Sunday. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m.

bleeson@postmedia.com

Twitter: @ben_leeson