Game Day Writeup: July 20th

After nine days of rest, the River Lions are back in the friendly confines of the Meridian Centre.

They’ll face a familiar opponent, the Fraser Valley Bandits, who they beat 104-94 in their last game on July 11. It was the River Lions’ first trip to Abbotsford of the season.

“Fraser Valley did a good job of showing us what a playoff-type atmosphere is going to be like just because they had to win that game,” head coach Victor Raso said about the last encounter with the Bandits. “Strategically, them… going through the post, they were trying to get some of our smaller guards on switches with the bigger guards.”

This part of the Bandits attack was established early, with the first five Bandits baskets coming inside the three-point line. Three of those five shots came right at the rim, and the Bandits outscored the River Lions 46-38 in the paint for the game.

“If Fraser Valley is going to do that, that means teams are going to try to attack specific things that our roster represents,” Raso said about making adjustments from their last game.

Despite being outscored in the paint and trailing after three quarters, the River Lions dominated the fourth quarter (a sore spot all season) to the tune of 40-29. The River Lions ended up shooting a better percentage from two and the three-point line, while also outrebounding the Bandits and generating more assists.

The River Lions were able to outscore their season average (102.6 points per game) against a tight Bandits defense. The Bandits defense allows the second-lowest field goal percentage this season (44.5%), right next to the River Lions in first place.

The Bandits also allow the most three-pointers attempted on the highest three-point percentage in the league (30.9 opponent attempts per game on 38.5%), and the River Lions capitalized late. The River Lions buried five threes in the last 3:36 and 13 on the game to end the Bandits’ three-game winning streak.

The River Lions were led in scoring by Guillaume Boucard last game, who poured in 25 points on steady shooting.

The Bandits were aided by a big scoring boost from Marek Klassen, who put in 23 points (up from his season average of 13.9). Klassen leads the CEBL in assists per game with 7.4.

The River Lions also became the first team to clinch a CEBL playoff spot, leading the standings with an 11-3 record.

“Now that we clinched a playoff spot, the focus even more has to continue on getting better,” Raso said. “That’s really the big thing over these next six games… we accomplished our first goal of clinching a spot, now we need to accomplish our second of finishing at the top of the standings to give ourselves the best opportunity to win a championship.”

Sitting tied for last place with a 4-10 record, the Bandits need to spark another winning streak if they have post-season aspirations.

The River Lions currently lead the season series 2-0, and after tomorrow night’s game will travel back to Abbotsford once more to close the series out in BC.

Tip-off is at 7 PM.

By Nicolas Bueno