Sea Bears expect dog fight

There was a short time when Emmanuel Akot couldn’t be convinced that everything was going to be alright.

During those painstaking moments while he writhed on the ground in Ottawa on June 4, the Winnipeg Sea Bears forward thought the hill he would need to climb to return to the court would be much steeper than any other he had faced before.

“I actually thought it was a lot worse than it was, so I was definitely scared, especially having some prior injuries with this ankle,” Akot told the Free Press on Friday.

“But, thankfully, it wasn’t anything too serious.”

Fast forward 15 days, and Akot’s sprained ankle looked no worse for wear as he went through solo drills with the club’s training staff after practice. The 27-year-old appeared to be moving well as he ran, cut and jumped on the healing ligament.

“Right now, I’m feeling pretty good, definitely making a lot of improvements from when it first happened,” said Akot, who is not new to recovering from an ankle sprain.

“I’ve dealt with a couple of ankle sprains in my career, so when I figured out it wasn’t anything broken or anything like that, I knew it’d be a speedy recovery, as long as I’m on top of my rehab.”

With this ailment almost completely behind him, the question now is when Akot will return to action.

The Sea Bears (7-4) face the Edmonton Stingers (3-6) at Canada Life Centre today (3 p.m.), but are in a luxurious position atop the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s Western Conference, where they don’t need to rush Akot back.

That said, head coach Mike Raimbault is optimistic that the forward will be able to return to game action any day now — possibly as early as today.

“He’s closing in on it,” said Raimbault. “I think if we had a playoff game, he would play. He probably could have played (Thursday) if we had a playoff game. We’re just waiting for final clearance. I think he’s probably going to tell you that he’s hoping that he’s going to get cleared and be able to return (today), but I haven’t heard that officially yet. So he’s progressing. We expect him to be back soon.”

Akot said the final hurdle is getting back into game shape, which means his ankle must be able to endure the contact that he’ll face throughout a 40-minute contest.

“I’m not too sure yet,” he said. “It’s gonna be soon, but I don’t have a day yet.”

Itching?

“Itching, for sure.”

While the Sea Bears remain on Akot watch, here are three more pointers entering today’s contest in the latest edition of Beyond the Arc.

Moon watch

This will continue to be a storyline until it isn’t.

Xavier Moon could make his anticipated debut today, but his status will depend on his being cleared by FIBA, the CEBL’s governing body. When that happens in anyone’s guess.

“It’s like an administrative process that we’re not necessarily in control of,” said Raimbault.

The guard, who won three league MVPs with the Stingers (2019-21), is clamouring to get into the lineup against his former team. Moon described the prospects of that happening as a “storybook ending.”

The idea that their best basketball is still in front of them has teammates equally excited to see him in action.

“Moon coming in, you know what he’s gonna do, he’s a great player,” said guard Mason Kraus. “He’s been an amazing player for his whole pro career, so getting him in, it’s gonna be amazing. Then, obviously, Akot has been amazing to begin the season, now adding him back — ugh — we could be really good, but we got to take it day by day, because easily we could just fall off.”

Opposites attract

These are two teams trending in different directions as of late.

The Sea Bears are winners of three in a row and have put themselves into the upper echelon of the league, while the Stingers have lost three of their last four and are searching for answers as the season reaches the halfway point.

It’s an interesting dichotomy compared to the last time the sides met in the 2026 season opener in Edmonton, where both entered with questions about what the season would hold.

Winnipeg left with a gritty 77-75 victory, and Raimbault said he believes this version of the Sea Bears is much improved from the one that took the court for the first time together on May 9.

“It’s hard to even think about. That wasn’t so long ago that we played them, but it seems like an eternity,” he said.

“Obviously, we’ve come together a lot as a group. We are talking a little bit about some things that happened in that game, but we feel like we’ve made a ton of progress. Obviously, they have as well, so it’s a great opportunity to sort of check in and see growth from both groups, and I mean, we know that it’s going to be a dog fight for sure.”

Learning from the past

Don’t expect the Sea Bears to overlook the Stingers.

Yes, there is a vast difference in the way these teams are trending lately, but playing a second game on a tight turnaround is something the club has struggled with earlier in the season.

“Just staying humble, knowing that this stuff can turn around just like that,” said Sea Bears forward Jeremiah Tilmon Jr. “We still got a lot of games ahead of us right now. We’re just trying to work on building a gap in between the (other) teams, so in the playoffs it’ll be easier for us.”

The most glaring letdown came on the road earlier this month, when the Sea Bears set a single-game franchise record for points in a game against Ottawa then laid an egg in a loss to Montreal the following night.

That became a teaching point and, to the club’s credit, the Sea Bears applied those lessons with a home-and-home sweep against the Calgary Surge last weekend.

“We talked about it today, like this is a similar situation to Ottawa and Montreal,” said Raimbault. “I think we’re very much trying to use the experiences that we go through to get better and to stack into the next lessons that we’re learning as a group, and for us that means, with limited prep time, we have to come out, and we have to play a cleaner game and hopefully dictate the terms with the quality of our energy.”

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