Game Day Recap: June 28th

Let’s just say Edmonton is not the River Lions’ favourite place to play.

Friday night at the Expo Centre in Edmonton, the Edmonton Stinger defeated the Niagara River Lions 105-99. The Stingers are now 6-4 on the season and 3 rd place in the CEBL, while the River Lions are 9-3 and remain in first.

The Stingers are the only team in the CEBL to have a winning record vs the River Lions and lead the season series 2-1.

“We were not ready to go when this game started,” said head coach Victor Raso. “They were mentally prepared for the fight and we let them throw the first punch. We fought back when we started playing physically but it took us to be in a 22-point hole to realize it.”

The River Lions were without starting point guard Trae Bell-Haynes, who was replaced in the lineup by Alex Johnson.

The River Lions were led in scoring by Ryan Anderson, who continues his hot scoring run with 21 points and five three-pointers.

“It’s a good reminder to be ready,” Anderson said. “Every team has a different play style. We have to exceed or at least match their energy. We definitely can win on the road. These are gems to help us on our quest to winning a championship… so as we move forward (we must) continue to grow and adapt. And respond. I definitely believe we will.”

After a decent first quarter, the score was tied at 23 after one.

The second quarter was a nightmare for the River Lions, with the Stingers winning the quarter 34-19. Perhaps symbolic of the night was a series of plays late in the half: With 1:40 left in the half, Mathieu Kamba missed two free throws for the Stingers. The Stingers got the offensive rebound, missed a three, collected the offensive rebound again, and then buried the ensuing three-pointer.

With 30 seconds left in the half off a Muldrow miss, the Stingers got out in transition for a massive alley-oop dunk to close out the half.

The Stingers lead ballooned to as large as 22 in the third quarter, but the River Lions (much like their other game in Edmonton) battled back to make it a game late. They had the deficit to four points with one-minute left and the score at 103-99, however they ran out of time to complete the comeback.

“We have to focus more, we’ve beat ourselves three times this season,” said forward Dorian Pinson, who finished with 19 points, nine rebounds and two assists. “Teams have played well and we tend to answer back too late and can’t pull out some tough ones on the road. We just have to have better mental focus and be ready for physical games on the road.”

When asked about the trend of getting behind early in road games, Pinson was confident in his team’s ability to battle adversity moving forward:

“We battle, we don’t ever give up, we’ve got a group of guys in the locker room that are ready to lay their body on the line for games. That makes us tough to beat even when we get behind early, we know we’ve got enough firepower to win,” Pinson said.

The River Lions go back to the Meridian Centre for their next game, which is a July 5 tip-off against the Saskatchewan Rattlers.

By Nicolas Bueno