Game Day Writeup: July 26th

The Niagara River Lions are about to face their greatest challenge.

In a terrific inaugural CEBL season riddled with iconic moments (the rivalry with Hamilton and their comeback win over Fraser Valley to name a few), the River Lions look to tackle another obstacle: the scorching hot-Edmonton Stingers.

“This is a very good Edmonton team,” said head coach Vic Raso. “They’re really solid and I draw a lot of similarities between us and them in terms of their togetherness… they’re a team that has essentially been together (since) the beginning of the year… they do a good job on the boards, and they play unselfish basketball on offense.”

The Stingers have won seven straight games (their last being a 105-103 over the Honey Badgers), are 4-3 on the road, and are the only team with a winning record against the River Lions this season. They boast one of the biggest teams in the CEBL, (with no player standing under 6’2”) and employ the two leading rebounders in the league, Jordan Baker and Grandy Glaze (8.4 rebounds per game).

“Last time when we were there, I think we underestimated the physicality of the game,” Raso said of their last meeting. “Games are won on the boards, and we’ve won a bunch of games where we haven’t won the boards, but we know coming down the stretch it’s not gonna be like that, you need to be fantastic, rebounding-wise.”

The month of July saw the return of Stingers’ guard Xavier Moon to the starting lineup. He has been nothing but fantastic this season, averaging 21.3 points (leads the CEBL), 6.8 assists (second highest in the CEBL), and five rebounds per game. If that isn’t impressive enough, he shoots 57% from the field (fifth best in the league) and 47% from behind the arc (leads the CEBL).

Moon has only played in eight of their 15 games so far this season due to injury.

On the River Lions’ side of things, they sit atop the CEBL standings at 12-3 while riding a three-game win streak.

Their last game saw them flex their defensive muscles, defeating a hot Fraser Valley Bandits team 80-71. Sam Muldrow set a CEBL record with eight blocks in the game.

They also remain undefeated at home, maintaining an 8-0 record at the Meridian Centre.

“Being undefeated at home is cool, but it doesn’t really matter to us at the end of the day,” Raso said. “What we need to do right now is take care of business, and we need to finish first in the league. Finishing first in the league is a serious advantage… we want to be that first seed heading into nationals’ weekend.”

If the River Lions come away with this win, they tie up the season series and put another game between them and the Stingers for the coveted first spot.

If the Stingers win, both teams own a 12-4 record, the Stingers win the season series 3-1, and it becomes a foot race to the one-seed with the remaining four games.

By Nicolas Bueno