Sea Bears hand Alliance first loss in thriller

Simi Shittu couldn’t have made a better first impression if he tried.

Facing the prospect of blowing a 19-point lead, the Canadian forward played hero in his Winnipeg Sea Bears debut to seal a 92-89 victory over the Montreal Alliance in the CEBL’s milestone 500th game on Wednesday.

“I’m kind of speechless,” Shittu said after scoring five points in Target Score Time, including a game-winning hookshot. “The crowd was there with us the whole time, obviously it wasn’t a perfect game … but we’ve got a lot of chemistry already.”

The win marked the Sea Bears' first time this season winning back-to-back games, doing so emphatically by handing the East-leading Alliance their first loss of the year while snapping a three-game home losing streak.

Winnipeg got plenty of contributions outside of Shittu’s team-high 20 points on 9-of-16 shooting, starting with Tevian Jones and Jaylin Williams, who chipped in 17 and 15 points, respectively. Terry Roberts added a double-double effort of 10 points and 12 assists, while Jalen Harris added a career-high tying nine assists despite finishing with just four points.

On the other side, Montreal was led by captain Quincey Guerrier, who scored a game-high 25 points, 13 of which came in the fourth quarter, on 8-of-12 shooting. Meanwhile, Tavian Dunn-Martin and Dontay Bassett rounded out the Alliance’s double-digit scoring efforts with 14 and 17 points each.

“We tried to fight all the way to the end,” Dunn-Martin said after the loss. “We didn’t start off too hot, but we showed our fight and we showed our heart.”

Although Shittu’s late-game heroics stole the show, it didn’t take long for him to make an impact in his first minutes as a Sea Bear. The former CEBL All-Canadian selection nailed his first two shots of the game, starting with a three for Winnipeg’s first points and then a dunk in transition after sealing off his defender in the paint — bringing the 6,505 fans in attendance at the Canada Life Centre to their feet.

And while Shittu was forced to the bench shortly after due to two quick fouls in the first, that leak out from him proved to be a precursor for the Sea Bears’ efforts in the opening frame. They pushed the pace on makes, misses and turnovers alike, rattling off an 8-2 run en route to a 25-21 lead after 10 minutes.

“Complete difference-maker,” Sea Bears head coach and general manager Mike Taylor said of Shittu post-game. “He started so strong, he had such a great start, and then the fouls limited him in the first half. But the rest of the team, the bench players, really stepped up … I was really pleased with the team effort.”

Winnipeg kept up that high temp throughout the second quarter, but its defence ultimately did the heavy lifting, forcing five turnovers in the frame from a typically disciplined Montreal team that entered Wednesday averaging a CEBL-low 11.0 giveaways.

“We started off slow, playing careless basketball,” Dunn-Martin said of his team’s uncharacteristic ball-handling miscues on Wednesday. “They played way more aggressive than us in the beginning … We got punched in the mouth.”

The Sea Bears' defensive activity not only led to 11 points off the seven total turnovers forced through the first half, but also helped them limit the Alliance to just 16 points in the second. And Winnipeg’s offence rewarded the effort on the other end as it finished the quarter on a 10-2 run, capped off with back-to-back threes — Jaylin Williams nailed his second of three triples in the game at the halftime buzzer to extend the Sea Bears' lead to 52-37.

“We’re in a great position,” Williams said on the team’s outlook moving forward after his 6-for-6 shooting performance on Wednesday. “We still have room to grow.”

To the Alliance’s credit, they came out of the break and responded, doing so largely thanks to their success on the glass. Montreal’s first three field goals of the second half all came on putbacks to extend its lead on second-chance points to 17-4 after 30 minutes — that margin was extended to 19-9 by the end of the game thanks to a total of 13 offensive rebounds.

And while that effort helped the Alliance chip their deficit back down to single digits throughout the frame, it didn’t hold. The Sea Bears' hot shooting — punctuated by back-to-back triples from Harris and Williams — ultimately rebuilt their double-figure advantage, going up by as many as 19 points before taking a 78-61 lead into the fourth.

Not to be outshone, however, Winnipeg’s defence made the statement play of the third quarter as Williams swatted a turning hookshot attempt from Kevin Osawe to close the frame. That miss brought Montreal’s field goal percentage below 40 per cent through three, before the Alliance eventually finished the game shooting 43 per cent from the field (32-of-74) while their two-game streak of scoring 100-plus points was snapped.

The Alliance did make things interesting to close the game, starting the final frame on a 9-0 run, making it an eight-point deficit on a Dunn-Martin triple at the 7:27 mark of the fourth. And although the Sea Bears did stymie some of that momentum, rebuilding their advantage to double digits off a slick transition lob feed from Roberts to Shittu, the Alliance persisted.

Montreal sparked a 9-2 run, punctuated by five straight points from Bassett to bring the deficit heading into Target Score Time down to 83-79. The Alliance then got big makes from their leading scorers, back-to-back triples from Guerrier and Dunn-Martin to take their first lead since the 4:57 mark of the opening frame.

But like Winnipeg had done all game, it responded. Emmanuel Akot dropped two timely layups with the clock stopped — part of 13 points and nine rebounds from the Winnipeg native — before Shittu sealed the deal. The forward corralled a slick bounce feed from Harris, who made his first appearance at Canada Life Centre since joining the Sea Bears, and Shittu made sure not to waste the high-percentage look to cap off his storybook debut in Winnipeg.

“Jalen actually called that last play for Simi,” Taylor explained post-game when describing the final possession. “So, as a coach, when you see these two new guys work for each other on the floor, that’s a really good sign.

“Really proud. It didn’t come easy, and it shouldn't. We want to keep developing and keep working, but it was a great win.”