Edmonton Make Statement Debut in Americas Champions League

The Edmonton Stingers, as 2021 CEBL champions, made the journey to Managua in Nicaragua with not much in the way of expectations of their Americas Champions League debut, but with a lot of ambition and determination to make their and the country's presence felt for the first time in international club competition.

Their championship win over the summer has earned them a place in Group A, where they faced two other teams from the Americas in the first phase of competition with a place in the knockout round up for grabs, but only for the top two in each three-team pool.

Beginning against home team Real Esteli, Murphy Burnatowski opened the scoring for the Stingers and his three-pointers kept Edmonton's noses in front as Esteli attempted to match them. The Nicraguan team took their first lead after six points unanswered, Edmonton responded with ten points unanswered. That was enough to keep their hosts at bay and continued shooting success saw them retain their lead, even in the face of Ismael Romero keeping it tight on the other end.

The Stingers had to fight to maintain their advantage in the second half: after four lead changes in the third quarter Edmonton regained their advantage. Javier Moica tried to insitgate a late fight back but Bunatowski and Mikhail McHenry combined to give Edmonton a ten-point lead, which Esteli cut down to three in the final stretch, but Jezreel De Jesus attempts to save the game with a three kept falling short, so the Stingers get their campaign underway with a win.

Even with Romero compiling a double-double (27 points, 11 rebounds) along with Renaldo Balkman with 19 points and 13 boards, Esteli could not take down Edmonton, who were led by Trahson Burrell with 20 points and 10 rebounds and three more in double digits as part of the opening win.

It was a very different story in game two, where the Stingers scored only nine points to Cangrejeros's twenty-two. This left them with a lot of room to make up, but the Puerto Rican team could not be stopped from the field, despite the best efforts of Trahson Burrell and Chad Posthumus who both managed double doubles, the latter coming off the bench.

Cangrejeros interrupted Edmonton's rhythm in the final quarter, stamping their authority and putting the final result beyond doubt. At the final buzzer the Puerto Ricans had the victory 89 points to 68; they followed this up with a three-point win over Esteli the next day. This leaves the Canadian team second in the group behind Cangrejeros going into the next round of competition, due to be held in San Juan in January.

Check back here for updates on Edmonton's progress and visit the official BCLA website for more on the competition.