But it was a less than ideal start, with Miners big man Cam McCallum exiting the game in the first quarter after a technical foul.

Acting head coach Rob Baker said Tristan Fisher, who hit two vital three-pointers early in the fourth term, and some big minutes from Ross Weightman helped fill the void, while a vocal crowd acted like a sixth man.

“We just had a real emphasis on defence,” he said. “We knew it was going to be a grind, we knew we had more legs than them and we just stuck with the plan the whole time.”