In many a basketball game, opponents will spend the better part of the opening quarter getting a feel for one another, easing their way into battle.

That wasn’t the case Sunday afternoon at the Sudbury Arena, as the Sudbury Five played host to the Island Storm.

Setting the tone for this wild affair in the first 12 minutes of the game, the teams combined for 65 points, while Sudbury coach Logan Stutz was ejected from the game, all as his crew went on to claim a 139-120 win over the visitors from Charlottetown.

The craziness started almost from the opening tipoff, with Sudbury sophomore Jaylen Bland nailing four three pointers in that first period, part of an early 15-point performance that was also accompanied by three personal fouls assessed his way.

“It definitely holds us back,” said Bland, discussing the challenges of playing with fouls. “Now, I have to be conscious, I can’t play hard, I can’t be as physical as I want to. It’s tough — the ref told me basically that he made a bad call.”

The officials also drew the ire of coach Stutz, tagged with a technical call, his ejection following on the same stoppage when he decided that his suit coat was now an optional accessory. Tossing it on the court likely did not help matters.

“He was sticking up for us, in his defence,” said Bland, asked about the effect of missing the head coach for most of this encounter. “He was pretty upset and it showed, so we had to step up for him. Our assistant, Elliott (Etherington), did a great job of keeping us focused and executing.”

In fact, the Five continued to display the kind of balanced approach that saw the locals widen their lead from 34-31 after the first, to 52-47 at the half, before exploding for a 50-point third quarter, and finally on cruise control heading into the fourth quarter holding a 102-82 advantage.

Bland finished the contest with 38 points, finding his range from distance again later in the game. But he wasn’t alone in creating a bevy of offensive highlights, with Marlon Johnson (22), Braylon Rayson (21), Dexter Williams Jr (21), JR Holder (14) and Malcolm Duvivier (13) all contributing at various points in the match.

Johnathan Loyd topped all scorers, lighting it up for 41 for the visitors, although many of those came with the Five comfortably ahead, as the 5-foot-8 native of Las Vegas netted 31 of his team’s final 69 points.

Robbie Robinson, Alex Campbell and Antwon Lillard, all with 15 points, as well as Lewis Diankulu (12) and Darnell Landon (10) all reached the double-digit plateau for the Storm, who saw their record drop to 5-6 on the year.

While team shooting percentages that hovered right around the 50 per cent undoubtedly pleased Five management, they only drew part marks on their effort to put the pre game plan into action.

“We wanted to limit our turnovers, because it’s a fast-paced game with them,” stated Bland. “They play small. We didn’t execute on the boards the way that we wanted to, because they out-rebounded us.”

In fact, the Storm held a 60-44 advantage in terms of securing loose balls on missed shots, though the Five compensated nicely from beyond the arc, nearing doubling the islanders, 21-11, in three-point baskets.

And though the Northern Ontario gentlemen of the hardcourt were guilty of being a little more laissez-faire, at their own end of the court, as this matchup wound down, there exists no doubt that the effort on the defensive side of the ball, and the end product, are well ahead of where this team was at this time last year.

“Most of that is on Elliott,” said Bland. “He came in with a defensive scheme. He has a few different things that he helped Logan with. We’re a team, and we’re all doing our part.”

Sitting at 5-4, the Five trail only the 7-1 London Lightning in the Central Division of the National Basketball League of Canada, a few points ahead of both the Windsor Express (4-3) and the KW Titans (2-8).

Coach Stutz and company now face the daunting task of flying out to an Atlantic coastline that has seen better days, weather-wise. The Five will play on both Tuesday and Wednesday in Newfoundland, trading baskets with the St. John’s Edge before welcoming Windsor to Sudbury for another Sunday-afternoon affair on Jan. 26.