Shooting Stars rout undermanned BlackJacks to reach championship weekend

In the end, the Scarborough Shooting Stars were just too much.

During the early stages of Saturday’s Eastern Conference Semifinal, the short-handed Ottawa BlackJacks scratched and clawed and put a jolt into the favoured Shooting Stars, threatening an upset victory.

But by the time the final buzzer sounded, Scarborough had safely punched its ticket to Championship Weekend in Winnipeg.

The Shooting Stars wound up with a 114-81 win over the BlackJacks on Saturday at Centre Slush Puppie in Gatineau, Que., an Ottawa home game that was forced across the provincial border due to a scheduling conflict.

Scarborough’s offensive output broke a CEBL playoff record, surpassing the mark of 108 it set in 2022.

“When you’re going against a team that is missing some of their guys, oftentimes the overall sentiment is it’s going to be easy. Nothing is easy in basketball. You have to make it easy and I thought we really had that mindset in the second half,” Shooting Stars head coach Mike De Giorgio said.

The Shooting Stars move on to face the top-seeded Niagara River Lions in the East final. The BlackJacks, meanwhile, will head home after a promising season was derailed by mass roster changes.

Ottawa lost 70 points from its lineup with the absences of league-leading scorer Javonte Smart, Sixth Man of the Year candidate Zane Waterman, longtime BlackJack Deng Adel, big man Isaih Moore and Canadian Keevan Veinot.

Instead, head coach Dave DeAveiro dressed an all-Canadian lineup for the first time in league history — and saw his troops start the game with a 9-0 run, only to fizzle out from there.

DeAveiro said he was proud of his team for how it fought amid the turbulence.

“Those guys played, left everything [on the court] and represented the organization as best as they possibly could,” he said. “My hat’s off to all the guys.”

Still, the Shooting Stars — who were missing some players of their own — were able to take advantage of their undermanned opponent.

Scarborough led by a playoff-record 26 points at 105-79 when the clocks stopped for Target Score Time.

And it finished things off quickly, scoring on four straight possessions to end the game.

Kobe Elvis punctuated the victory with a pair of game-winning free throws.

“That’s kind of like the step-on-their-neck mentality that we wanted to have. And that’s something that we’ve been missing a lot this season. We get big leads, and [Target Score Time] they get back in, so today was really a test for us to get a lead … and hold it,” said Donovan Williams, who led the team with 27 points to go with five assists.

With the Shooting Stars missing guard Cat Barber and forwards Kalif Young and Jaden Campbell, De Giorgio dressed practice player Samuel Wong and assistant coach Daniel Mullings. But, as it turned out, the extra depth wasn’t necessary as Scarborough shot a blistering 50 per cent from three-point range.

Terquavion Smith, the hero of the play-in game, added 17 points, five rebounds and five helpers. Elvis came off the bench to pour in 19 points and seven dimes.

And forward Khalil Miller broke a team record by hauling in 17 rebounds, completing a double-double with 19 points, too.

Miller said “it feels great” to be moving on to Winnipeg.

“Everyone said we just had to come together and take care of business and that’s what we did,” he told sideline reporter Heather Morrison in a post-game interview.

On the other side, the BlackJacks’ season comes to an end despite a second-place finish in the East at 12-12.

One positive that came from the loss, however, was the all-Canadian roster.

“That’s what this league’s supposed to be. It’s supposed to be a breeding ground for young Canadians as they move forward in their professional careers and giving them opportunities,” DeAveiro said.

David Walker, who played 14 games for the Shooting Stars earlier this season, paced the BlackJacks with 19 points off the bench while adding five rebounds.

Ottawa captain Tyrrel Tate had 17 points, while big man Christian Rohlehr had 16 points and eight rebounds.

Walker said it was fun going against his former squad.

“There was a lot of extra motivation. Those guys were talking trash,” he said.

He added that the pre-game mindset for Ottawa was simple.

“It was just like we got guys in the locker room, we’re gonna go out with these guys, battle with these guys,” Walker said.

While the BlackJacks started the game with that 9-0 run, the Shooting Stars settled in and led 26-25 through 10 minutes.

Scarborough then poked ahead even further in the second quarter, taking a 54-42 advantage into halftime.

Through three quarters, the Shooting Stars led 81-67, and they finished the job without much stress in the fourth.

Now, their next challenge — in Winnipeg, against the defending champion River Lions — awaits.

“To be the champ you gotta beat the champ,” said De Giorgio, “so we’ll be ready to go.”