River Lions clinch semifinals berth
With an 84-81 road victory over the Hamilton Honey Badgers Thursday night, the Niagara River Lions clinched second place in Canadian Elite Basketball League play.
The win was important because it gives the River Lions (9-4) a bye in the league championship semifinals on Friday, Aug. 20 at the Edmonton Expo Centre.
“It was absolutely massive for us because if we had to play a quarter-final game, we wouldn’t have had our Americans back,” Niagara head coach/GM Victor Raso said. “It is getting late and guys are starting to sign overseas so there is always the uncertainty of what is going to happen there because those 10-month contracts kind of trump ours if guys have to leave early.”
The aforementioned Americans are Javin DeLaurier, Xavier Sneed and Tyree White. Sneed is at the Charlotte Hornets’ summer league team while DeLaurier and White were at a mini camp with the Milwaukee Bucks.
“They will be back unless they sign to the actual NBA club after summer league,” he said. “Even if they do, we will probably get them back for that weekend anyways.”
With that much roster uncertainty, it makes it tough for Raso and the rest of the River Lions’ management.
“It is really hard and that is why Antwi (assistant GM Atuahene) and I have been working since November of last year to come up with a plan because the calibre of players and persons we are getting are the kind of guys other teams see the value in too,” he said. “We knew there was a good chance we were going to lose our guys to summer league and we knew we weren’t going to be able to have Phil and Tommy (Scrubb) all year. Come this time of the season, we were going to have to have a group of 10 or 11 guys who could get it done.”
With a league salary cap, it requires someone to have handle on that situation and Raso is the team’s capologist in addition to all his other duties.
“I have gotten pretty used to it and the rules are changing every single year,” he said. “There’s not a lot of people who understand the CEBL salary cap and I don’t think there is anyone who understands it more than me at this point.”
That cap knowledge can make the difference between a team winning or losing when it matters the most. Teams need to start planning early in the process because they can accumulate bonus money in the cap as the season goes along.
“That bonus money becomes incredibly important for times like this,” Raso said. “Phil and Tommy make a lot of money overseas and to be able to save enough to properly compensate them for the last five or seven games is incredibly important. If we didn’t plan that out in advance, I would have been strictly asking them to come play as a favour.”
Leading the way for Niagara in Thursday’s win were: Thomas Scrubb, 24 points on 9-17 shooting and seven rebounds and three assists; Jaylon Babb-Harrison, 17 points and seven rebounds; Phil Scrubb, 16 points and four assists; and, Lloyd Pandi, seven points.
Niagara led 21-12 after one quarter, 43-31 at the half and went into the final quarter with a 61-52 advantage. Hamilton never gave up and trailed by only six points going into Elam Time.
“We didn’t quit. We got up early and we held on to it and they made some runs,” Raso said. “Their fans were loud and it was a hostile environment but we stuck with it down the stretch. They defended really well and caused us some problems but our guys stuck with the plan and made some big shots and some big plays.
“Tommy had an and one and three and an and one in Elam, Jaylon Babb-Harrison made some shots and then he had a big one at the end.”
Top scorers for the Honey Badgers were Lindell Widdington (17 points), Jean Victor Mukama (13 points) and Thomas Kennedy (13 points).
Niagara will conclude its regular season Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Meridian Centre when it hosts the Ottawa BlackJacks (4-8).
“The big thing is to play as normal,” Raso said. “We had a few goals this year and one was clinching a top two seed and the other was double-digit wins. We have an opportunity for double-digit wins and the moment you start to take the foot off the pedal and not play as hard, that is when stuff goes awry and bad things happen.”
Following Sunday’s game, Niagara will have 12 days off before the semifinals and Raso will use the first three days of that stretch to let his players rest. The team will then resume practising before heading to Edmonton Aug. 17.
