River Lions break camp

The Niagara River Lions concluded their Canadian Elite Basketball League training camp Tuesday with an afternoon scrimmage at Canada Games Park.

“After tonight, all the (other) guys on our training camp roster know that this is it. They were here for the week to train and get to experience it and help us so they will be going home,” River Lions head coach/GM Victor Raso said.

“We have Aaren Rai arriving tonight and he didn’t play today. We will incorporate him for the next two days and then play on Friday.”

Raso was happy with how training camp played out.

“It went quite well from how much clarity the coaches were able to provide to the players and it is the best job that we have done. We are as far ahead as we have been in training camp and we also have returning guys who know me and us so the relationships don’t need work. Then there is the familiarity.”

The messages delivered fit the assembled group and the players were able to pick things up quickly. But there is plenty of work still to be done.

“We are five days in. We are not a good basketball team yet. We have some characteristics of a good basketball team so tonight (scrimmage) is a big one,” Raso said. “Getting into the scrimmage, we will find out about ourselves and we will find out the things we need to work on before our game on Friday.”

Raso feels the 2024 version of the River Lions is different that past iterations.

“This the biggest we are across the board. We are definitely the most defensively-talented and on the boards and we have a really good basketball IQ.”

The major question with the roster will be how well does the team shoot the basketball.

“We have around eight guys who shoot 40 per cent from three. We have Juggy (Jahvon Blair) who is a big time three-point shooter and a lot of guys who can make shots. A lot of it will come down to how well we can make shots because I think we will be big enough to be able to defend and rebound at the level we need to.”

The next two days prior to the home opener at Brampton will be a busy one.

“Wednesday we will be back to the drawing board and watching clips of last night (scrimmage). Then we go live in practice working on the clips we see from tonight,” Raso said. “Thursday will be a lot of reps and non-contact and Friday we will go.”

Yet to be determined is the team’s starting five.

“If you made me pick a starting five right now, it might lose to our next five and that is a good problem to have. But we will see.”

The official team roster will be announced Wednesday.

Niagara opens on the road May 24 on the road against the Brampton Honey Badgers before hosting Brampton May 30 at 7 p.m. at the Meridian Centre.

Visit www.riverlions.ca/tickets for more information.