Sea Bears look to rebound on home court

The Winnipeg Sea Bears took one on the chin, and now they will try to dust themselves off and find the bounce-back trail for the first time this season.

After dropping a hard-fought 103-101 contest against the Scarborough Shooting Stars in Toronto on Tuesday, the Sea Bears (2-1) will return to the court on Friday to host the two-time reigning Canadian Elite Basketball League champion Niagara River Lions (0-1) at Canada Life Centre (7 p.m.).

The Sea Bears know they were a play or two away from boasting an unblemished record through three games. Instead, they left with a sour taste in their mouth after blowing a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter in Target Score time.

A short memory is imperative.

“It’s not the luxury the league where you can have those stretches or a game where you feel like, ‘We should have won, but f— it, let’s move on to the next,’” said Armani Chaney.

“I think it’s more of a stretch where there’s not a lot of games in the regular season, so I think every game that you can win, I think you’ve got to win it. Obviously, we had that sour taste, because we definitely should have won… but it’s OK, man. We are still learning each other, learning to see what each guy likes to do.”

Head coach Mike Raimbault is a practice junkie, so you won’t find him raving about the quick turnaround from Tuesday. The Sea Bears’ only practice this week was on Thursday, but there is merit to seeing how his team rebounds against a team the Sea Bears have never lost to on home court.

“I think we’re a work in progress still. We’re still learning lots,” Raimbault said. “I think you know it will be important to see us bounce back and play a little smarter, a little harder, a little more sustained quality of decision making at specific times in the game, but we just want to continue to try to get better day by day.”

Here are three pointers to get you ready for Friday’s contest in the latest edition of Beyond the Arc.

Added depth

Raimbault has already shown that he is comfortable relying on his bench — at least nine players have seen the floor in all three games — and it’s expected that he will continue to flex his depth with Nathan Bilamu now in the fold.

Bilamu, the 25-year-old Hamilton, Ont., native, joined the team ahead of Tuesday’s contest and saw 7:04 of action in his season debut.

The 6-5 guard, who recently wrapped up his season with Esgueira Basket in Portugal’s top pro league, re-upped with the Sea Bears this off-season after a strong rookie campaign in 2025 when he displayed promising flashes in a depth role and developed into a fan favourite.

Bilamu called his first season overseas — which produced an average of 12.7 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.4 steals across 24 contests — a success, with plenty of lessons that he’s brought with him back to Winnipeg.

“The talent is better than the CEBL, for the most part, but overall, what I learned in Portugal was just how to be a pro,” Bilamu said. “Your routines, and just being able to adapt in any situation that the coaches or the club want you in. I’m just gonna bring that over here to Winnipeg and do the same things over there.”

Bilamu will now return to the Sea Bears’ home court for the first time this season. He appeared in 20 games last year and averaged 5.5 points and 3.1 rebounds per game.

“It’s great,” said Raimbault. “He’s a worker; he brings a ton of positive energy. Nice to see him again after a bit of time, and trying to work him into the mix. Now, chemistry wise is a little bit more of a challenge without an extended amount of practice. But I thought he looked good (Thursday), and we’re excited to have him back.”

Without their Lion King

Khalil Ahmad is the CEBL’s two-time reigning Finals MVP, former league MVP (2022), a former Defensive Player of the Year (2023) and has been named to the All-CEBL First-Team three times.

That’s to say the River Lions’ star guard is a player who can cause opponents a lot of headaches, but the Sea Bears won’t have to worry about him on Friday.

Ahmad hasn’t reported to the River Lions yet as he rests from a regular season that took him to Israel and Italy.

Ahmad is often an eraser of mistakes on both ends of the floor, so his absence will be an added challenge for first-year head coach Kimbal Mackenzie, who captained Niagara the last two seasons.

Meanwhile, it is perhaps a sigh of relief for Raimbault and the Sea Bears.

“It’s always nice, I guess, to not have to deal with a team’s potential best player,” said Raimbault.

Finding their range

The Sea Bears’ offence found its range from deep for the first time this season on Tuesday, and it allowed the club to eclipse the century mark in consecutive games for the first time in franchise history.

Despite the loss, it was a promising sign to see the club knock down the three-ball. They matched their season total in triples (13) in the game, while firing at a 44 per cent efficiency.

Winnipeg was dead-last in the league with a 29.7 efficiency from long range last season and was firing at a 25 per cent clip through the first two games of this season.

Maintaining that level of efficiency from range can open up a host of possibilities on the offensive end of the floor going forward.

“I think we expected it to shoot it better than maybe our first couple of games, just based on personnel and ability,” said Raimbault. “So, I think some of that was more of a normalization, perhaps, but I thought we did a reasonable job of finding open ones and people in rhythm, and slowly starting to find the groove of who’s going to be shooting it when, and having our feet set, and shooting with the confidence that we need to, to make shots.”

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