Brampton Honey Badgers look to even up home-and-home series against Niagara River Lions
By Zulfi Sheikh (@zulfi_sheikh)
In game two of a home-and-home set, the Brampton Honey Badgers visit the Niagara River Lions as action between the Eastern Conference opponents tips off tonight at 7:00 pm ET from the Meridian Centre.
The game will be available for streaming live on TSN+, CEBL+ powered by BetVictor, and on the CEBL Mobile app available on iOS and Android devices.
Brampton (5-7) and Niagara (7-6) will be facing-off for their second of three contests this regular season and going head-to-head just two days after their first matchup. In that contest, the visiting River Lions went into the CAA Centre and came out with a dominant 101-84 victory over the Honey Badgers.
The league’s top scoring team (92.2 PPG) found much of their success early by way of the long ball, as Niagara knocked down 13 triples in the first half alone. Their strong shooting helped them build a double-digit lead going into half-time that they never surrendered the rest of the way.
It was their star guard Khalil Ahmad who led the way for the team via his 23 points on better than 50 per cent shooting from both the field and distance. He’s now averaging 18.1 points per game (seventh in the league) and 5.6 assists (fourth), while doing work on the defensive end as well with his CEBL-best 2.8 steals a night.
Ahmad’s play has been pivotal for the team as of late as he’s scored over 20 points in three consecutive games on route to back-to-back wins for the River Lions.
On the other side, Brampton also enters this game in the midst of a streak, but unfortunately for Honey Badgers fans it’s in the opposite direction as the team has lost three-in-a-row. Outside of Niagara’s hot shooting throughout the contest, it was Brampton’s mishandling of the ball that cost them quite a few possessions.
They finished the game with 20 turnovers, many of which were of the live-ball variety. Those giveaways allowed the River Lions to take a 19-13 edge on points from turnovers and get out on the break for easy looks as they finished the game with a +17 advantage on transition baskets.
Ball security should be a point of emphasis for the Honey Badgers as they look to snap this losing skid. In their three consecutive losses the team has averaged 18 turnovers a game, a noticeably higher uptick from their 14 a night prior to said streak.
Ashley Hamilton will be a player who’ll look to bounce back from his ball handling issues, as the forward gave the ball away five times on his own. However, despite those struggles, he still had one of his best nights of the season as Hamilton nearly notched a double-double with a season-high 17 points and eight rebounds in 26 minutes of action off the bench.
Another player to watch out for is Brampton’s Koby McEwen. One of the top candidates for the CEBL’s Canadian Player of the Year Award, the guard has been in a bit of a funk as of late. During the team’s three-game losing streak he’s averaged just 7.7 points per game on 27 per cent shooting from the field and 20 per cent from distance. After finishing their latest game with just 12 points on 21 per cent shooting, fans of the team will hope McEwen can get back to his earlier form when the guard was averaging nearly 16 points a night.
The Honey Badgers did have a bright spot in the game, and it was the play of Christian Vital. The guard matched much of Ahmad’s production throughout the night as he put up 23 points, five rebounds, and three steals, doing so on an efficient plus-50 per cent shooting from the field and distance.
He now averages 19.6 points per game (fourth), 4.5 assists (ninth), and 2.6 steals (third), and will be looked upon to match the high scoring efforts of Niagara’s backcourt once again.
As this is an inter-conference matchup, there are seeding implications in this contest. The River Lions are just half a game behind the Scarborough Shooting Stars for second place in the East and with a win they’d be tied with Scarborough and just one game back of the conference leading Ottawa BlackJacks.
Meanwhile the Honey Badgers could use a victory to bring themselves into a tie with the Montréal Alliance for fourth place, and avoid extending their gap at the bottom.
All games will also be streamed live internationally on the CEBL’s OTT platform, CEBL+ powered by BetVictor, and on the CEBL Mobile app for iOS and Android devices. Full list of betting props available on BetVictor. Preview written by Zulfi Sheikh (@zulfi_sheikh).
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