Sea Bears mount outrageous comeback

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/06/2023 (1064 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Sea Bears are the winningest team in the Canadian Elite Basketball League. On Thursday, they showed they can be the most electrifying, too.

Winnipeg rallied from a 17-point third-quarter deficit to beat the Niagara River Lions 93-90 when guard Jelani Watson-Gayle’s step-back jumper clinched the deal before a roaring crowd of 4,446 fans at Canada Life Centre

The hosts, who led 83-81 at the start in Target Time, got a clutch three-pointer from Watson-Gayle moments earlier to move into position for the victory.

On Winnipeg’s next possession, with a 90-87 lead, forward Chad Posthumus needed to hit two free throws to ice the game but got only one, setting the stage for Watson-Gayle’s winning shot.

Watson-Gayle finished with 19 points and five rebounds. Winnipeg’s Teddy Allen led all scorers with 28 points while E.J. Anosike, on 10-for-14 shooting, added 21 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

“It feels great because this was a playoff-type game,” said Anosike, paying tribute to the River Lions, who are led by 2022 league MVP Khalil Ahmad.

“That’s a very talented team with talented players team. They were contenders last year and they’re contender this year with the reigning MVP. So games like this are preparing us for when that time comes we got into the (Championship Weekend) and it’s time to win.”

The result improved Winnipeg’s record to 8-3 atop the Western Conference. The River Lions are third in the Eastern Conference with a 5-6 mark.

“We were playing a little soft in the first half,” said Posthumus, explaining his team’s poor second quarter in which the Sea Bears were outscored 30-15. “We were letting kind of some of the calls affect this. (We have to) remember that these refs are just as excited and just as fired up as we are (and) they make some mistakes, right? And then we kind of, we kind of let that dictate our plan, our defence and our offence…

“In the second half coach talked to us all, we talked to each other and we said, ‘We’ve got to play our game. We got to play our game no matter what and not let anything affect us.

Thursday’s crowd boosted Winnipeg’s home attendance to 29,369 through six home games for an average of 4,895 with four home games remaining.

Posthumus, who chipped in with eight points and 10 rebounds, including eight on the offensive glass, said Anosike’s contributions to the comeback with essential.

“E.J. making some big dunks, getting the crowd into the game — that was massive for us,” said Postumus. “You get the crowd behind you. You get a guy coming out and scoring the ball at that rate, that was exciting. It got us all fired up on the bench, too. And that was the biggest difference in the third (quarter).”

Ahmad, who is the CEBL’s leader in steals and assists, was Niagara’s top scorer with 24 points. Jahvon Henry-Blair and E.J. Onu added 15 and 14 points, respectively.

Sea Bears GM and head coach Mike Taylor was loved the spirited comeback.

“We’re going to see all kinds of different coverages, we’re going to see all kinds of different situations and we’ll have a plan how to react to it,” said Taylor, whose club is hoping to finish with the best regular-season record and earn a bye into the four-team Championship Weekend slated for Langley, B.C., in August.

“We’ll have experience reacting to it. So the only thing you’ll be able to do is get super physical and at that point, this was a perfect example for our team to respond the way they did in the second half. I’m really proud of the guys.”

The Sea Bears are on the road for their next three games against the Ottawa BlackJacks (Sunday), Montreal Alliance (Monday), Edmonton Stingers (July 8), respectively.

Winnipeg returns to Canada Life Centre Tuesday, July 11 against the Saskatchewan Rattlers.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14