RIVER LIONS WELCOME BACK AMERICAN FORWARD SHAWN OCCEUS
St. Catharines, ON – The Niagara River Lions announced today the signing of 6’4 American forward, Shawn Occeus presented by YOUR Legal Services. The 25-year-old from Boca Raton, Florida will join the team for tonight’s game versus the Scarborough Shooting Stars at 7:00pm at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre. Occeus most recently played his third season with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA G League.
In three seasons with the Vipers, Occeus averaged 3.6 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 16.3 minutes per game. Occeus also spent one season overseas with Pheonix Hagen of the German ProA League during the 2021-22 season, where he averaged 30 minutes a game scoring 13.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.03 steals.
Occeus played 4 games with the River Lions during the 2022 season averaging 4.5 points, 1.5 steals and 1 rebound in 15.5 minutes per game.
Occeus spent his college basketball career at Northeastern University where he averaged 8.5 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.3 steals over three seasons. In 2018 he was named as the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Defensive Player of the Year, as well as being named to the CAA All-Defensive Team and CAA All-Tournament Team. That same year Occeus finished as the team’s second leading scorer and made a team and conference high 64 steals.
Occeus was selected by the Salt Lake City Stars with the seventh pick in the second round of the 2019 NBA G League draft, and later went on to sign his first professional contract with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
The Niagara River Lions are one of the original six teams of the CEBL. Playing out of Meridian Centre in downtown St. Catharines, the River Lions represent the twelve municipalities of the Niagara Region while living up to the River Lions moniker of pride and strength of community. The River Lions are currently 9-6 on the season with just two more regular season home gamesin July. Visit www.riverlions.ca/tickets for more information.
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Michelle Biskup, Vice President, Operations