CEBL Sees Two Tight Finishes Early in Summer Series
The Elam ending, adopted by Canadian Elite Basketball for their 2020 Summer Series, may be seen by some as a complicated upset to the game of basketball, but it has made for some knife-edge conclusions to some showdowns seen at the Meridian Centre in the first week of play.
Such an ending was seen on July 30th when the winless Ottawa Blackjacks faced the Fraser Valley Bandits. Shaquille Keith, Johnny Berhanemeskel and Thomas Scrubb combined to take Ottawa 14-0 after three minutes. Jahenns Manigat broke the Badnits’ scoreless streak and, along with Marcus Capers and Marek Klassen, brought the gap down to four minutes later.
Cameron Forte tried to go even further for Fraser Valley, but Ottawa’s three-point shooting restored their double digit lead, which reached as high as fifteen. After the Bandits hit ten in a row midway through the third quarter, Kalssen gave them their first lead of the game early in the fourth.
Berhanemeskel and Olivier Hanlan responded, putting the Blackjacks up by five, but that very quickly shrank to one point. With the gap continuing to be a small one, the game was hanging in the balance, before a Junior Cadougan foul on Berhanemeskel sent him to the line and he hit free-throw that got Ottawa to the target score.
Manigat led Fraser Valley's scoring with 18 points, while Forte had 15 and Capers had 12 along with 11 rebounds and 2 blocks in the loss. In the first win for the Ottawa Blackjacks in their history, Berhanemeskel led with 19 points, closely followed by Hanlan with 17 while Scrubb finished with 12 points and 10 total boards in the 78-76 victory.
It was the first slip up for Fraser Valley all season, and it would carry on to their next game when they lost to the Hamilton Honey Badgers 102-96. The Niagara River Lions were in the opposite situation: after their opening day win, they had dropped two games when they took on the Edmonton Stingers on July 31st.
They had the early lead, before Edmonton went up courtesy of Xavier Moon, who gave them an even bigger lead end of the opening quarter, with Adika Peter-McNeilly also contributing, as they finished the first 25-17 ahead of the River Lions.
In the second quarter Jordan Baker hit five in a row for Edmonton and Travis Daniels followed suit, taking their lead up to ten points. Tyrone Watson and Ryan Anderson got Niagara down to two points on two separate occasions, only for Trae Bell-Haynes and Grandy Glaze to tie for the Stingers both times. Bell-Haynes and Kassius Robertson then combined to put Niagara up two at half time.
Edmonton kept the pressure on after the re-start, but the River Lions were able to hold on to the lead in the third quarter until Mathieu Kamba tied proceedings and Moon up the Stingers up two. No more than four points separated the two in the fourth and Niagara were ahead by just one point after six minutes.
Robertson made it a five-point River Lions lead, only for Moon to hit five in a row for the Stingers, tying the game. Daniels put Edmonton back in front and Baker sealed them the win with a driving layup.
Trae Bell-Haynes finished with 23 points and 8 rebounds in Niagara's loss, while Moon led all with 24 while Baker scored 19 and grabbed 12 total boards for Edmonton in their one-point victory.
Following this with a 88-66 win against the Saskatchewan Rattlers brings the Edmonton Stingers' win streak to four, making them the team to beat at this early part of the summer season. Meanwhile, defending champions Saskatchewan are not looking as assured in their title defence, winning just once out of four games played so far.
Led by Tre'Darius McCallum, the Guelph Nighthawks have impressed in their start to the season with three convincing wins, at the same time the Hamilton Honey Badgers have been uneven but with some big wins to their name they have the potential to improve as the series progresses.
To keep up to date with the CEBL and for more information on all games, visit the league's official website.
