River Lions fall to Sea Bears
Bad was how Victor Raso described the visiting Niagara River Lions’ play Thursday night in a 94-82 loss to the Winnipeg Sea Bears in Canadian Elite Basketball League action before 7,756 fans at the Canada Life Centre
“When we are aggressive and we have a fear in our belly in terms of having to be the aggressor, the harder-working team, we win those games,” the River Lions head coach/GM said. “This game kind of felt like Ottawa (90-86 loss June 15). It is a bad trend with us that has got to stop.”
Raso had no explanation for the disturbing trend.
“We did not play well. I am a little upset at myself. I feel like sometimes when things are going well, I don’t put panic into them and they are grown men. Early in the year they kind of earned my trust to take a step back but it has happened twice now where we have had poor performances where I don’t want to be cracking the whip or being harder on them during the week because we are coming off wins. That’s my fault, I can’t let that happen. You have to create the feeling of coming off of a loss with that kind of intensity when you have been winning because that’s what winners do.”
After playing last on June 21, Raso was looking forward to five straight days of practising but that did not happen. TJ Lall and Elijah Lufile got injured in the game and Nathan Cayo broke a tooth that eventually had to be removed Tuesday.
“He wasn’t even with us until we got on the plane on Wednesday but it is what it is,” Raso said. “We have lots of games and lots of time to correct things and we’re halfway thorough the year at 6-4.”
Last year, the team was 5-5 at the midway point of the season. The Ottawa BlackJacks (3-7) did Niagara a favour Thursday night beating the defending champion Scarborough Shooting Stars (6-5) by a 102-80 margin.
“We are still first in the East and by no means are these (games) fatal but it’s a trend that we have to buck.”
After games in Saskatchewan on Saturday and Vancouver on Monday, the River Lions will have played eight of their first 12 games on the road.
“It is definitely a challenge and our schedule is generous to us in the second half of the year but this road trip is daunting and our schedule in June has been daunting,” Raso said.
When the month comes to an end on Sunday, the River Lions will have spent 15 nights in hotel rooms.
“It’s a lot but it puts you in situations where you learn a lot about yourselves. You’ve got to bounce back. There are opportunities here to figure things out about ourselves so we are playing the best basketball in the second half of the year when our games are all at home,” he said. “These games on the road expose some things.”
Top performers for Niagara were: TJ Lall with 23 points and nine rebounds; Omari Moore with 15 points, seven rebounds and seven assists; Khalil Ahmad with 12 points and five rebounds; Jahvon Blair with 12 points; and, Elijah Lufile with 10 points and seven boards.
Leading scorers for Winnipeg were Justin Wright-Foreman (22), Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson (11) and David Muenkat (11).
Niagara returns home to play Calgary next Thursday.
Visit www.riverlions.ca/tickets for more information.
