Rattlers grab early lead, hold on to beat Sea Bears

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This article was published 22/05/2024 (497 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Saskatchewan Rattlers proved to be more than the Winnipeg Sea Bears could handle as the Canadian Elite Basketball League rivals opened the 2024 season in Saskatoon on Wednesday night.

With Jalen Harris scoring 23 points, including the game-winning field goal in target time, and Maurice Caloo adding 22, Saskatchewan took control of the game in the second quarter en route to a convincing 94-86 victory over Winnipeg before 2,230 fans at SaskTel Centre.

“We had so many opportunities within the game to be more efficient,” said Sea Bears GM and head coach Mike Taylor by phone. “We settled for perimeter three-point shots — we were nine for 39 from three — but we did not really get the pressure on the rim, the paint touches and the finishes at the rim like we needed to.”

Reigning league MVP Teddy Allen had a game-high 40 points to lead the Sea Bears, who trailed by as much as 17 points in the second quarter before rallying to close to within 50-45 at halftime.

But was as close as Winnipeg would get.

“We’ve got experienced players and today was just about how we played,” said Taylor. “We had a lot of adversity in the first half with a lot of foul trouble — we had a couple guys with three (fouls), a couple of guys with two — so that force us to go deep into the bench. But at the end of the day, give Saskatchewan credit, they came out and they played with good energy and they were physical.”

The Rattlers, who had three chances to hit a winning free throw in target time prior to Harris’ winning two, also received scoring support from Elijah Harkless and Grant Basile, who chipped in with 19 and 16 points, respectively.

Darius Days chipped in with 16 points for the visitors, while Allen added 11 rebounds and four assists.

Winnipeg got 12 points from starting guard Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson, who got into some early foul trouble in his CEBL debut.

“Anytime you come into a new system with new teammates, especially as a point guard, it takes some time,” said Taylor. “So Jarred is learning the league. It’s his first game in the CEBL. He’s doing a great job with our system. He’s really engaged and trying to organize things and it doesn’t come overnight — it takes some time. You’ve gotta work at it. We’re really happy with his defensive effort out there today and he had seven assists, only two turnovers, and four rebounds.”

The Sea Bears will be back in action Friday night when they host the defending CEBL champion Scarborough Shooting Stars at Canada Life Centre.

“We’ve got a good game plan for Scarborough — it’s a great home opener, a sellout crowd with a new floor and the defending champ coming into your building, so we’re really excited about it,” said Taylor. “But we’ve got to take what we can learn from this game, study it and try to get better.”

The Sea Bears, who led the league in attendance during its inaugural campaign in 2023, will have a sellout crowd of 9,116 on hand Friday, but they are no longer owners of the single-game CEBL attendance record.

On Tuesday, the Calgary Surge and Edmonton Stingers played in front of the biggest crowd in league history, with 12,327 in attendance at Scotiabank Saddledome.

Last season, Winnipeg set the previous single-game record of 10,580 fans for an Aug. 4 game against the Stingers during the play-in round of the playoffs, and the regular-season mark of 8,230 set on July 29 against Edmonton.

Winnipeg took two of three games from Saskatchewan in 2023.