MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – It was an exhibition game like any other.
The Weeknd was blasting in the background, the mascot came screaming across the court with a giant flag and the fans were loud and eager to cheer on their team.
So what made this different? The mascot was Stripes, the flag had a giant “905” on it and the fans came out to witness a little bit of history, Raptors 905’s first-ever contest at home.
In total 1,146 people came out to Hershey Centre, and try as they might to get amped about their new team, the on-court product didn’t give them much to cheer about, falling 102-83 to the Erie Bayhawks on Sunday afternoon.
Melvin Johnson led the way for 905 with 23 points, while the Bayhawks’ Tyler Harvey poured in 22.
Additionally, Bayhawks’ Canadians Myck Kabongo and Melvin Ejim each had strong contests finishing with 11 and nine points, respectively.
There were few highlights for 905, but in a blowout like this the positives on the home side tend to stick out.
For instance, though the end result was still a blowout, it could’ve been much uglier as Raptors 905 fought back to that 21-point margin after being down by as much as 49. Small victory for sure, but making up 28 points is still pretty impressive.
Or when Canadian Sim Bhullar checked in for the first time midway into the first quarter, receiving a large ovation, and cheers every time he touched the ball, subsequently.
Though the support was strong, Bhullar wasn’t all that productive, scoring just two points, while grabbing five rebounds.
Bhullar’s game was indicative of how the Raptors 905 as a whole played, however. Mississauga’s new team was overwhelmed by the Bayhawks from the opening tip and only managed to shoot 33.8 per cent from the field, while allowing Erie to torch them at a 47.6 per cent clip, despite the many desperate pleas of “defence” from the crowd.
Overall, fans in the building seemed poised to get into it, but were never allowed to due to how badly their team was getting beaten.
With that said, when the team did happen to make a positive play, the building got pretty loud at ground level. This is a promising sign given how you’d have to think attendance will increase when the regular season tips off and when players from the big club such as Bruno Caboclo and Lucas Nogueira come down, theoretically making Hershey Centre a potentially tough place for opponents to play in.
905 head coach Jesse Mermuys was amazed at the fan support he saw despite his team’s struggles.
“I was blown away. I mean Sunday for an exhibition game for a team that is brand new? You know we don’t really have a following and we probably don’t have the complete word out that we even exist.
“I thought it was a really great turn out. I was really impressed and that just goes to the fans here. It’s just really amazing. None of them left, we were getting blown out and we weren’t really playing very well and they stayed there, they cheered us on.
“Always you’re surprised by the fans here. I tip my hat to them and we appreciate the ones that came out.”
The fan support for this fledgling NBA Development League team appears to be pretty real with one-fifth of the Hershey Centre’s max capacity filling up for an exhibition game as not bad proof.
Now the fans just need the team to give them something to genuinely cheer about.
