River Lions even record at 2-2
The Niagara River Lions survived a wild first half, which included the ejection of top Winnipeg player Teddy Allen, to record a 101-94 victory over the visiting Winnipeg Sea Bears Thursday night in Canadian Elite Basketball League action at the Meridian Centre.
Niagara’s fundamental building blocks of tough defence and strong rebounding were missing at times in the first half but the River Lions still managed to improve their record to 2-2.
“That first half was wild,” River Lions head coach/GM Victor Raso said. “We were not defending at all to start the game and I don’t think they were either. Then with the technicals and the ejection, that game just got weird. I thought we started to get some stops down the stretch but again we are not starting the game the way we need to defensively. I thought after the first quarter we rebounded really well.”
Raso described Winnipeg as dangerous.
“That whole team is Teddy Allen and then he leaves and it’s the guys who just play hard all the time and it was kind of their moment. And as much as you are competitors, you are going to take your foot off the gas when the best player in the league is gone in the second quarter. I am proud of our guys for sticking with it.”
The win was crucial with the River Lions starting out on a three-game road trip beginning Sunday in Edmonton.
“Wins in this league are hard to come by and you have to protect home court. For us to be 2-2, that is good but we have a tough road trip coming up out west starting against Edmonton and they are 4-1. I excited it for it and for our guys to get on the road,” Raso said.
He feels his squad has gotten to a pretty good spot in its development.
“We’re building and with four games in we are starting to figure things out. The leadership is starting to show and I am really happy with the growth of Omari (Moore), Elijah (Lufile) has been playing fantastic, TJ Lall is starting to come into form here, (Aaryn) Rai is starting to get aggressive, Jahvon Blair has been good and then you see Jordan Tchuente go out tonight and get 10 points in his first shift. We are starting to play good basketball and next time we come home Khalil (Ahmad) will be here and we will really get rolling.”
Tchuente described the win as pretty good.
“Winnipeg has a really good team and Teddy Allen is the leading scorer in the CEBL. It was game planning around him like you saw and once he got out of the game they started playing really well,” he said. “It was adjusting to that and being adaptable. I felt we did that. We had some up and downs but ultimately we came up with the W.”
RIVER LIONS 101 SEA BEARS 94
BPSN Player of the Game: Niagara’s Aaryn Rai with 20 points, five rebounds and a plus-24 rating.
For the Niagara River Lions: Jahvon Blair 21; Rai 20; TJ Lall 14; Jordan Tchuente 10.
For the Winnipeg Sea Bears: Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson 24; David Muenkat 16; Mason Bourcier 13
Game stats: Field goal percentage: Niagara 43, Winnipeg 42. Free throws: Niagara 20-23, Winnipeg 15-19. Rebounds: Niagara 53, Winnipeg 43. Turnovers: Niagara 10, Winnipeg 12.
Up next: Niagara is at Edmonton Stingers Sunday. Next home game is June 19 at 11 a.m. against the Scarborough Shooting Stars.
