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The London Lightning broke into The Vault and stole a victory from the clutches of the Halifax Hurricanes.

Another third-quarter letdown by the Hurricanes helped vault the Lightning to a 112-101 NBL Canada win Tuesday evening in front of about 1,500 fans at Scotiabank Centre.

The Hurricanes kept pace with the league’s top team through the first 25 minutes of the game and were up by three before things went inexplicably cold for the home team in the second half.

It’s the second consecutive home loss for the Hurricanes (2-8) and the second straight game in which they have sputtered out of halftime. Halifax was outscored 30-18 by the Moncton Magic in the third quarter of a 95-88 loss on Sunday afternoon.

London held the advantage in the third quarter, 23-16 and outscored Halifax 57-45 in the second half.

“The urgency is not where it’s supposed to be coming out of halftime,” said Hurricanes centre C.J. Washington, who all scorers with 31 points and added 10 rebounds. “That’s something we have to sit down and correct because we have a good first half, go into halftime but we don’t come back out with same urgency, same intensity.

The Hurricanes shot just 35 per cent from the field in the second half and were just 1-for-14 from beyond the arc in the final 24 minutes. They also had seven turnovers.

“It’s tough,” Washington said. “It was a lot of breakdowns, a lot of turnovers in the second half. That really hurt is tonight. They got a lot of open-court turnovers that led to baskets and that was the game right there.

“That’s happened two games in a row and we have to fix it by next game.”

Chris Johnson came off the Hurricanes bench to score 18 points and Joel Kindred added 17 points and 10 boards. Mareik Isom led the Lightning with 24 points while Xavier Moon had 21.

Although London and Halifax entered the game at opposite ends of the standings, not much separated the two teams in the first half.

Halifax went into halftime with a 56-55 lead. The Hurricanes were 21 of 38 from the field while the Lightning were good on 21 of 39 shots and each team had seven turnovers apiece.

“We needed to lock in, speed the game up and play at our pace,” London high-flying forward Anthony (A.J.) Gaines Jr. said. “We like to play fast and get the ball up the court. We didn’t really do that in the first half. We came out a little slower and kind of played into their game.”

Halifax led 60-57 early into the second half, the Lightning went on a 13-2 spurt in the third quarter.

The London run was highlighted by a pair of emphatic two-handed slam dunks by Gaines. After stealing an errant pass, Gaines raced down the court and threw down a slam to put London ahead eight. Later in the quarter, Isom grabbed a defensive rebound and dished the ball to Gaines, racing down the lane, who put away another dynamic dunk.

“I’m having fun out there,” said Gaines, a Shreveport, La., native in his second season with the Lightning. He had 18 points off the bench.

“Coach is putting me in spots to be successful and the more I believe, the more successful I will become this year.”

The Lightning, despite being hampered with injuries to start the season, own the league’s best record at 8-1, including 5-0 at home.

But they have healed up just in time for with all but one starter back in the lineup.

The Central Division-leading Lightning will continue their Maritimes road swing Thursday when they visit the Magic, leaders in the Atlantic Division.

“We are proving that we are the real deal this year,” Gaines said.

“We are starting to hit our stride. We have a couple sickness bugs but once we get at full strength, we won’t be someone you want to mess with this year.”

The Hurricanes, meanwhile, will travel to Newfoundland and Labrador this weekend for a pair of games – Friday evening and Sunday afternoon – against the St. John’s Edge.

“We need some road warriors,” Washington said. “It’s going to be a test going over there to play two games. We have to steal some games on the road and get the job done.”