Steady Stingers hand River Lions fourth straight loss

Edmonton and Niagara received a taste of post-season basketball on Friday.

A chippy, tightly contested matchup ended in a 92-81 win for the Stingers over the River Lions at the Edmonton Expo Centre in the second-last regular-season game of the year for both teams.

Edmonton moved to 14-9 for the season, keeping its hopes alive of a home playoff game depending on Calgary’s result later Friday. The Battle of Alberta is locked in as the Western Conference play-in game.

Either way, the Stingers don’t appear like they’ll back down — at least if Friday’s win was any indication.

“We know it’s gonna be a dogfight against Calgary. We know it’s gonna be a playoff-type atmosphere. It’s gonna be tooth and nail, it’s gonna be a five-point ballgame, so for us to be able to trust each other and have that chemistry going down the stretch is gonna be important,” Stingers head coach Jordan Baker said.

Niagara has already clinched a spot at Championship Weekend with the top seed in the Eastern Conference but is now riding a four-game losing streak as it falls to 14-9.

The Stingers fired on all cylinders right from the tip, building an early advantage and holding on even as the River Lions made a series of runs throughout the game.

When the clock stopped for Target Score Time, Edmonton held an 82-76 lead.

The Stingers stood tall during the game’s final phase, calmly playing their game and ultimately going up 90-81.

Veteran Nick Hornsby then raced in transition after a River Lions turnover, stopped up, bounced a shot off the glass and clinched the win for his team.

The Stingers clearly enjoyed the win. The team danced their way down the floor after Hornsby’s winner — Scottie Lindsey called the choreography “natural” — and huddled around the booth for Lindsey’s post-game interview.

“We’re a family and winning is our main thing right now. We want to bring a championship back to Edmonton, and we’re close,” Lindsey said.

The win marked the Stingers’ second straight after beating the Saskatchewan Rattlers on Wednesday.

Also Friday, Vancouver clinched the top seed in the West with a 102-95 victory over the Scarborough Shooting Stars. The Bandits will host the winner in the conference semifinal next Saturday.

For the Stingers, it means their play-in opponent — the Surge — has been determined.

“We’re trying to gain momentum not only with wins, but with style of play, and I think tonight was rocky at times, but we weathered the storm and ended up on top,” Baker said.

Edmonton’s offence — a strength all season — keyed its latest victory as the Stingers scored 49 points in the first half, made 59 per cent of their two-point attempts and connected on 48 per cent of their overall field-goal attempts.

The scoring was balanced throughout the Stingers lineup as leader Sean East II was limited to 14 points. He now needs 16 points in the Stingers’ Sunday finale to break the league’s single-season scoring mark.

“It just goes to show how deep we are. We’ve been together all year … so we’re just trying to keep building that chemistry and keep building toward the playoffs,” East II said.

In his place, Hornsby led the way with 21 points to go with four rebounds and four assists, Lindsey added 20 points, four rebounds and four steals and forward Keon Ambrose-Hylton put up 12 points and six rebounds.

Baker said he was happy with the Stingers’ team-first offensive mentality.

“We attacked aggressively, we found our gaps, we took advantage of mismatches. When the ball gets stagnant and we try to isolate, I think that’s where we struggle a bit,” he said.

Hornsby said his team’s “hard-headedness” was its key to success.

“They came out pretty hot in the second half. We didn’t get down. We were frustrated with ourselves, just in the sense of we weren’t doing what we needed to do, but we picked that back up and turned it around,” he said.

The River Lions, meanwhile, are suddenly stumbling as they make their way toward Winnipeg for Championship Weekend.

Niagara’s losing skid comes on the heels of a franchise-record seven-game winning streak — and it may be feeling the frustration after it picked up technical fouls in the first half, including two on the bench and one against leading scorer Khalil Ahmad.

Head coach Victor Raso said the River Lions have been “losing on the margins.”

“It’s a really tough task that we have right now and we’re struggling with it. We’re struggling to play meaningful, really high-level, championship-calibre basketball with nothing on the line and it’s a dangerous game that we’re playing here. I trust the experience of the group, but it’s not ideal,” Raso said.

The River Lions enjoyed a balanced scoring attack like the Stingers, with Ahmad and Ron Curry sharing the team high with 19 points each.

Elijah Lufile fell just shy of a double-double with eight points and 10 rebounds, while Ahmed Hill added 11 first-half points off of the bench.

Captain Kimbal Mackenzie, who had 11 points of his own, said his team is still working hard despite already having Championship Weekend locked down.

“We’re trying to be in a mode here where we’re going in with good momentum. We’re a competitive group. We play basketball because we like competing, because we want to win every game,” he said.

The Stingers roared to a strong start and led 23-19 by the end of the first quarter.

Another strong second quarter left Edmonton with a 49-42 lead at halftime, but Niagara responded with a 7-0 run to even terms early in the third quarter. Through 30 minutes, the Stingers regained a five-point advantage at 69-64.

Edmonton then kept Niagara at arm’s length throughout the fourth quarter.

Now, it can carry that confidence into a Battle of Alberta play-in game.

Up Next

Both teams are in action for the final day of the regular season on Sunday as the Stingers host the Winnipeg Sea Bears while the River Lions visit the Calgary Surge.

Next CEBL Action

All 10 teams play on a quintuple-header Sunday as the regular season comes to a close.