R-Lions battle COVID and Bandits

Written by Bernie Puchalski for BPSports Niagara

There was always going to be a degree of uncertainty with the Niagara River Lions’ roster heading into the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s championship weekend in Edmonton.

American players Xavier Sneed, Javin DeLaurier and Tyree White had all left the team to attend summer league stints with NBA teams and Niagara head coach/GM Victor Raso was hopeful all three would be able to join the team in Edmonton this weekend.

What Raso didn’t anticipate was having the COVID-19 pandemic throw him a huge curveball after his team’s season-ending, 89-79 home win over the Ottawa BlackJacks Aug. 8.

“The league has told me I can’t get into details but a couple of days later someone who was involved in that game tested positive,” he said. “As a result, they had to do contact tracing and it set off all the COVID protocols which meant a lot of people had to be isolated for 10 days and vaccinated is different from non-vaccinated as is all the testing and what you have to test.”

It put the River Lions in a difficult position.

“There is a part of me that is concerned and there’s another part of me that knows we did everything we could,” Raso said. “We tested every 48 hours for the last two months and our guys were good about COVID. Stuff happens and it has happened to us and I want our guys to play as hard as they can and give it all they got.”

He knows it won’t be easy to make the finals.

“At the end of the day, the cards are stacked against us in a game like this with the lack of preparation,” Raso said. “I hope everybody’s flights get out on time and my biggest concern is the bodies that are actually supposed to be there on Friday, actually are.”

Raso hasn’t seen his players since the Ottawa game.

“We have had to do our best to prepare through Zoom sessions and we have our strength and conditioning coach working with all of our guys right now trying to keep them in the best shape as possible,” he said. “We were even delivering basketballs to guys so they could dribble and do stuff like that.”

Raso, a few coaches and a few players left for Edmonton Tuesday, the American players were supposed to show up in Edmonton Wednesday, three more players are scheduled to arrive in Edmonton Thursday and the final River Lions will arrive Friday.

“If everything goes well with the flights, we may have a 30-minute shootaround Friday morning where we are all together before the game but that’s it,” Raso said. “We are in a pretty adverse situation here but our guys are good about it and they have handled adversity well all season. This is going to be the biggest test for us. Trying to win a playoff game after not being together for two weeks.”

Despite this, the preparations remain the same.

“It is the same type of strategy that we take into every single game. We try to identify our opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, identify ours and play the game our way and be the aggressor,” Raso said. “I feel the last four games of the season were playoff games so I think our guys understand the level we have to play at to win. It’s just a matter of overcoming a lot because basketball is a game of rhythm and our rhythm was just completely taken away from us. We are just going to have to fight through some tough times to get that win.”

The River Lions (10-4) will play the Fraser Valley Bandits (7-7) Friday at 5 p.m. The Bandits advanced to the semifinals with a 104-84 romp over Guelph.

Niagara split its regular season series with the Bandits, losing the first game 104-81 June 29 and winning the second 103-82 on July 8.

“The first time we played them their intensity overwhelmed us and the second time we played them, we did the same to them. We wore them down a bit and played incredibly hard,” Raso said. “The biggest thing against Fraser Valley is to know the game plan and win the fight because they are a tough, aggressive team. For them, their recipe for winning is similar to ours. That’s win the boards and be very stingy defensively.”

There is no margin for error versus Fraser Valley.

“If you do not play as hard as you possibly can and you are not there for the physical war, I don’t think you have a chance,” he said. “Once it gets to that point, guys are really going to have to execute and do all the things our scouting report asks us to do.”

Two years ago, the River Lions lost their semifinal game 104-103 to Hamilton and it was a valuable experience for Raso.

“I learned a lot and the biggest thing I learned was how you have to build a foundation over the course of a season to be prepared for that moment,” he said. “I thought that our team from 2019 was a really good basketball team but we didn’t necessarily preach the things that could cost us down the stretch. That team could have been a little soft, our defensive principles weren’t the greatest and we won a lot of games by outscoring people. In a playoff game like we lost in 2019, I don’t think our base was tough enough defensively and our fundamentals weren’t tough enough defensively.” Raso vowed that wouldn’t happen again.

“What I have tried to do this year is create a defensive understanding that can apply to the most difficult and pressure-packed moments,” he said. “I hope, come Friday, we are in a better position to lock in defensively for 40 minutes than we were a couple of years ago.”

The Edmonton Stingers will play the Ottawa BlackJacks in the other semifinal with the championship game set for Sunday at 2 p.m.