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If the Sudbury Five hope to catch fire in the second half of the season, the talent and tenacity of Jeremy Harris could certainly help to provide a spark.
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The 25-year-old shooting guard from Greensboro, N.C., has become as one of Sudbury’s most consistent, most versatile offensive options this National Basketball League of Canada regular season, averaging 19.9 points and shooting 45.5 from the field over 10 games, and has also proven to be a reliable defender while collecting 6.6 rebounds per contest.
The agile 6-foot-7, 185-pounder scored 12 of his 19 points in the second half of a 104-102 comeback victory over the KW Titans last weekend, which pulled the locals to 5-7 on the season, and he would love to have a repeat performance when the Five host Flint United of The Basketball League on Saturday.
Tipoff at Sudbury Community Arena is set for 7:05 p.m.
“It’s coming along,” said Harris, shortly after practice at College Boreal on Friday morning. “We’re just trying to get on a winning streak. We didn’t really have a training camp, but we’re finally starting to click as a team and we’re finally healthy, so it should be a fun end to the season.
“To have our full potential, that’s always a good thing.”
Several players on the Sudbury roster, as well as head coach Elliott Etherington, missed games early in the season while isolating due to COVID-19, and they were also without starting guard Jaylen Bland due to injury before finally assembling their entire squad in the last couple of weeks.
Harris has been among the standouts in that span, hitting double digits in five straight games, while topping in the 20-point plateau three times and scoring a season-high 32 in a home-court win over Windsor on March 20.
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And while the University of Buffalo alumnus demonstrated his skill as an outside shooter earlier in the year, he has since shown a well-rounded skill set by scoring points in the paint and attacking the rim with confidence, even when faced with seven-foot big men.
“I’m playing pretty decent,” he said. “I’m just trying to help the team win, to play my role, be aggressive, help others guard, try to guard the best players.
“I just try to make the game easier for others and myself at all times, to have no weaknesses.”
Having spent the earlier part of his professional career in Europe, first in the Hungarian Nemzeti Bajnoksag I/A, then the Swedish Basketligan, Harris was happy to sign with a team in the NBLC for 2021-22.
“It’s closer to home,” he explained. “I have been in Europe the last two years and I was missing home a little bit, so I just came right up the street.
“Forty-eight minute games, back to back, I never did that, so I’m trying to get my body used to it, adjusted to the pounding on the body, just getting after it.”
Etherington has been pleased to have Harris on board this week for some of the Five’s most productive practices all season, noting his emergence as one of the team’s leaders.
“He’s really coming into his own,” Etherington suggested. “He’s understanding what he needs to do in the offence and defensively, he’s doing a lot, rebounding, blocking shots, just being active on defence. I’d say this week he has been more vocal, too, more of a leader, more intense, more competitive, and that’s only going to make our team better.
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“On the offence, he can play 2, 3, 4 for us, and defensively, he can guard 1 through 4. He’s like a Swiss army knife, but he does a little bit more than that. He can take over a game if he needs to and we saw that in the fourth quarter last game and against Windsor. That versatility is something we need out there and he’s a big part of our success.”
Sudbury’s head coach will look for a similar standard of play from Harris and his teammates come Saturday. Flint carries a 3-5 record into the Nickel City, having lost four of its last five, but is coming off a 104-96 victory over Dayton this past weekend.
“We can’t assume anything,” Etherington said. “We’re 1-4 against the States. We have watched some film, we understand some of their personnel as best we can, but we can’t assume anything just because we’re at home. We have to treat it serious and we have to get back over .500, so tomorrow’s an important game for us.”
“It’s a good TBL team and we’re not going to take them for granted,” Harris added. “We’re going to come out and have some fun.”
The Five visit Windsor next Wednesday at 7 p.m. before returning home the following Saturday, April 9, to host KW at 7:05.
Space Jam game to support SickKids
Five players and staff will attend a press conference on Monday to announce details of their upcoming Space Jam game on April 9, which will see the squad don special themed jerseys.
The jerseys will be auctioned off online, with proceeds going toward the SickKids Foundation.
Twitter: @ben_leeson
Multi-talented Harris an emerging leader for Five - The Sudbury Star
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