Fraser Valley Hosts Niagara For First Time This Season
The 8-3 Fraser Valley Bandits host the 7-4 Niagara River Lions at 1 p.m. PT on Sunday with both teams looking to bounce back from a loss. Niagara and Fraser Valley sit one game apart with Saskatchewan between them.
Fraser Valley lost 93-86 to the Scarborough Shooting Stars on Friday night to end a five game winning streak the Bandits were on.
In the loss to Scarborough, Alex Campbell and Shane Gibson were massive pieces of both the offence and the defence. With Campbell coming away with the key steal to give Fraser Valley a 94-92 win over Newfoundland on June 26, him and Gibson have both paced the Bandits play and their shot creating have been sparks for Fraser Valley when their ball movement isn’t flowing like they want.
On the other side, Niagara is coming off a 92-90 loss to Saskatchewan on Friday night in which their starting point guard Khalil Ahmad scored 37 points on 47 per cent shooting. Matched with Devonte Bandoo and Scottie Lindsey, Ahmad and his facilitator teammate Daniel Waldin-Mullings combined for 56 points and were sparks for the River Lions.
The ability for both the Fraser Valley and Niagara guards to attack mismatches and create separation off the dribble are important for their team’s execution and with the two half court defences, their shot creating will be important to determine who comes out on top.
At the forward position, the matchup is the scoring of James Karnik and Antonio Davis Jr. Karnik scored 20 points in their loss to Scarborough on 47 per cent shooting, going 7-14 from inside the paint against the Scarborough forwards of Isiaha Mike and Kameron Chatman. Fraser Valley got Murphy Burnatowski back in the loss and his ability to get on the boards will be key going against Tidjan Keita and Olu Ashaolu.
Davis scored 16 points on an efficient 60 per cent shooting to go with eight rebounds against Jordy Tshimanga and the Rattlers, and now he goes against the three-point shooting of Maxie Esho and the multi-faceted play of Karnik. Esho scored 19 points against the Growlers and making three of six threes, he spreads out defences for spacing that allows Fraser Valley to attack off of the dribble and get defenders out of position.
From the perimeter, both teams have threats in Adnam and Campbell for the Bandits and Ahmad and Waldin-Mullings for the River Lions. Adnam and Campbell combined for 14 three-point attempts against the Growlers, making six of them, and the tandem for Niagara made five of seven against Saskatchewan with Munis Tutu also attempting three.
Niagara averages 87.1 points per game and their defence leads the league with 5.3 blocks per game. The interior defence of the River Lions will cause problems for the Bandits rim attack that their guards offer, but the ball movement and three-point shooting which ranks second in the CEBL in three-point percentage and third in makes, will give them the upper hand.
Niagara can tie the Bandits in the standings while Fraser Valley can improve to 9-3 and tie the Honey Badgers for first.
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