Stingers school Sea Bears

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This article was published 12/06/2023 (1195 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Sea Bears were leading a charmed life to begin their inaugural season in the Canadian Elite Basketball League.

Until Monday night, that is.

The expansion Sea Bears, owners of a stellar 4-1 record that included three road victories heading into their home date against the Edmonton Stingers, were schooled on the offensive and defensive ends of the floor en route to a resounding 97-68 loss before 5,434 fans at Canada Life Centre.

Edmonton dominated throughout, trailing only once after the first basket of the game and held a 86-62 lead at the start of Target Score time and cruised to victory with the game clock turned off with four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

“We talked about making sure we stayed hungry, coming home and not relaxing, being uncomfortable, not being satisfied and unfortunately, (but) that’s kind of the way we came out today,” said Sea Bears GM and head coach Mike Taylor. “We didn’t have the same defensive intensity. We didn’t impact the ball like we needed to against these guys. We were just a step late in transition and a step late in our rotations and defence. And that’s a credit to Edmonton for being ready to play.”

The Stingers, seemingly unfazed by their last-place 1-3 record coming into the game, took a 29-21 lead after the first quarter and pushed the advantage to as many as 19 points before a late burst helped the Sea Bears close to within 12 points, at 50-38, by the intermission.

Crucial to the result was Edmonton’s ability to keep Sea Bears scoring ace Teddy Allen under control. Despite two blocks, five rebounds and a game-high 27 points, the 25-year-old guard looked frustrated much of the night and exited the game with five fouls in Target Score time.

“They wasn’t under my skin,” said Allen, who equalled the CEBL single-game scoring record with 42 points against the Scarborough Shooting Starson June 3. “We definitely just gotta be able to get stops. If you don’t stop a team, they’re gonna get comfortable, they’re gonna play really hard on defence and they’re gonna hit more shots. We’ve just got to do better and make the (opposing) team uncomfortable. We did not do that tonight.”

Nick Hornsby had 18 points for the Stingers but also made a steady contribution to the team effort to defend against Allen.

“He’s a great scorer (and) he can get to any position he really likes to but we tried to make him make a pass the ball a little bit more and make other people score and I think we did a good job of that even though he had 27 (points),” said Hornsby.

“I think we had a lot of guys in the rotation that did a really good job of bothering him, getting under his skin, picking him up full court and sent him directions he didn’t want to get sent to. So, even though it was 27, I think it was a difficult 27.”

Taylor admitted Edmonton’s defensive tactics were effective.

“The game plan for Edmonton was put bodies in front of Teddy and try to get him to move the ball,” said Taylor. “I think Teddy and Jelani (Watson-Gayle), even when they tried to do the right things today, maybe the passes were a little bit (off) that you know they bounced the wrong way… We were definitely not as sharp as we needed to be.”

Edmonton was deadly from three-point range in the opening half, going 10-for-21 including a three-for-nine mark and 11 points by Isiah Osbourne.

Osbourne, who finished with 21 points, hit the victory-clinching three-pointer in Target Score time. The Stingers finished with 14 threes in 35 attempts. Brody Clarke also had 21 points.

Winnipeg replied with a three-for-11 mark (27.3 per cent) from behind the arc in the opening half and finished the game at six-for-29 (20.7 per cent).

Watson-Gayle came off the bench to scored 16 points.

E.J. Enosike had 12 points and five rebounds for the hosts.

“They just outplayed us on both ends of the floor today,” said Watson-Gayle. “I think our energy wasn’t there defensively and us not being able to get a lot of stops kind of messed us up on offence.”

Next up for the Sea Bears is Thursday’s game against the visiting Brampton Honey Badgers. Game time is 7 p.m.

The Honey Badgers handed the Sea Bears their only road loss of the season so far, a 75-71 decision on June 1.

FREE THROWS: As part of Filipino Heritage Month, the Sea Bears and their fans celebrated Phillipines Independence Day at Canada Life Centre on Monday.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14