First CEBL Game for Ottawa Marks Season's Opening Day
All eyes were on the Ottawa Blackjacks as they took to the court at the Meridian Centre for the first game in their history as part of the Canadian Elite Basketball League Summer Series.
Their roster boasted NBA draftees and Canadian international players, but their inexperiences as a franchise meant that there was little to indicate who they would fare against their first opponents, the Guelph Nighthawks.
Ottawa got off to a good start with a 6-0 run, capped off by Shaquille Keith, but Guelph quickly closed the gap to one and kept it a single-possession game until Keith and Olivier Hanlan drew it back out again. They finished the first quarter leading 16-12.
Philip Scrubb kept fighting to keep Ottawa in front as the Nighthawks put them under pressure in the second. Scrubb gave them a seven-point lead three times as Jonathan Arledge kept closing the gap for Guelph, which saw the game tied at half-time. On the restart Ottawa were the ones playing catch-up, losing the lead to Guelph's Jamal Reynolds, who got them seven points clear midway through the third.
Tajinder Lall kept trying to restore the Blackjack's lead but Kimbal Mackenzie and Tre'Darius McCallum proved too much for their defence to contain. There was no going back after a 7-0 run from Guelph, which gave them a 17-point lead they sailed home to a 89-71 win.
Keith had 17 points off the bench for Ottawa, behind only Thomas Scrubb with 18 in the loss. Jamal Reynolds had perfect on the floor from off the Nighthawks' bench, making every field goal attempt and finishing with 13 points to his name. Tre’darius McCallum was their top scorer with 16 while Aleridge finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
It wasn't the only action of the day: just before, the Niagara River Lions, who would be on home court the whole season, faced a rematch with the team that denied them a championship final spot last season, the Hamilton Honey Badgers.
Niagara’s Daniel Mullings would be the difference maker in a close first quarter where there was little to choose between the two teams. The lead he gave the River Lions at the end of the first quarter carried over in the second, where he and Grandy Glaze would lead their team's offence in creating a wider gap between them and Hamilton.
Trailing by fourteen at the start of the second half, the Honey Badgers' offence continued to fall short, allowing Niagara to take the biggest lead of the game, at nineteen. Six points in a row late in the third helped to reduce Hamilton’s arrears, but the River Lions, led by Ryan Anderson, Trae Bell-Haynes and Kassius Robertson, were running away with it.
Briante Weber had the last of his team-high 15 points down the stretch while Owen Klassen was able to complete a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds, but there was no way they could salvage the win for Hamilton. Niagara, meanwhile, had four of five starters finish in double digits, with Mullings leading all with 22 as well as 9 rebounds, as they get their season off in style with a convincing 97-85 win.
