Sea Bears go out in style

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This article was published 04/08/2023 (768 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Sea Bears can call their inaugural season a smashing success.

But they won’t be able to call themselves 2023 CEBL champions.

Winnipeg’s newest sports franchise lost 87-81 to the visiting Edmonton Stingers in the Western Conference’s playoff play-in game Friday night in front of a record crowd of 10,580.

With the win, the Stingers will now head to Calgary to take on the Surge in Sunday’s quarterfinal at 8 p.m. CT.

Winnipeg is eliminated.

Although it didn’t end in a championship celebration, pro basketball’s return to the city went better than anyone could have ever expected as they closed out Year 1 with the seven highest attendance marks in the CEBL’s five-year history.

“I’m proud of this team the way they helped establish the organization. I’m proud of the city for the way they supported the team. And I think the foundation has been laid. There’s a bright future for the CEBL here in Winnipeg,” said Sea Bears head coach Mike Taylor.

“Again, we want to take ownership of our performance, we want to take ownership of the situation, and we want to work to get better. But for an expansion team in its inaugural season, to have the success that we did, make the playoffs and get to this point, I’m really proud.”

The Sea Bears put up one heck of a fight considering they lost star power forward E.J. Anosike at the beginning of the week. Anosike left Winnipeg early to pursue an opportunity with the Nigerian national team.

“This is part of the league. You see all around the CEBL there are key players missing from teams… But we don’t want to make any excuses about this player or that player,” said Taylor.

“E.J. was a key (piece), but we knew all week we wouldn’t have him. We prepared well, but it wasn’t enough today.”

University of Manitoba product Simon Hildebrandt got the start in his place. Hildebrandt stepped up big with 11 points and 11 boards but saved his best for target score time with five points and a big charge on defence. Hildebrandt’s efforts weren’t enough as Edmonton kicked off target score with a 77-73 advantage and never looked back. Canadian guard Isiah Osborne hit the game-winning three to finish with a team-high 24 points. Edmonton also had Brody Clarke (13), Lucas Williamson (11), and Aher Uguak (11) score in double figures.

“It was a fantastic opportunity I was given with the organization. They all had faith in me to be out there and make those plays,” said Hildebrandt.

“It was an unforgettable experience, especially with it being in my hometown, having a chance to be on the floor at the end there. Obviously, it’s not the outcome we wanted and I’ll probably be thinking about it for the next week or two. I’ll just try to learn from it and move on.”

Sea Bears guard Teddy Allen had another MVP performance with 35 points and 10 rebounds. Point guard Jelani Watson-Gayle, who was returning to action after missing the last game of the regular season with an injury, had 18 points on 37.5 per cent shooting. Three of Winnipeg’s starters — shooting guard AJ Hess, point guard Glen Yang, and forward Shane Osayande — converted 27 per cent of their looks for a combined 15 points.

“Teddy has been fantastic all season. He puts his heart on the floor. He’s a go-to guy for our team, and I think the way he’s helped establish this organization, to me, in my mind, he’s the MVP of this league,” said Taylor.

Edmonton has Winnipeg’s number at the Canada Life Centre as they stomped the Sea Bears 97-68 on June 12 and also prevailed 98-86 in last Saturday’s regular-season finale. The Sea Bears were the No. 2-ranked team in the West with a 12-8 regular season record. Edmonton was the third seed at 9-11.

The Stingers came out strong by starting the game with an 8-0 run. Winnipeg soon punched back with three-pointers from Hess, Yang, Hildebrandt and Watson-Gayle. Allen didn’t score his first bucket until 2:47 minutes were left in the opening frame but managed to finish with seven to help tie the game 23-23 at the end of the first.

The Stingers managed to create some separation at the half as they held a 45-41 lead after two quarters of play thanks to an efficient attack that saw them shoot 61 per cent from the field. The Sea Bears were shooting just 36.4 per cent, but kept things close with Allen having 17 points by halftime.

Allen did the heavy lifting in the third quarter with 15 points. The rest of the Bears scored just nine points, but it was enough to trail by just one, 66-65, going into the fourth. They made things interesting and were down 79-78 near the end, but Osborne wouldn’t miss as he scored seven of Edmonton’s final 10 points.

The Stingers made 47.9 per cent of their attempts and held the Sea Bears to 35.5 per cent shooting.

“Overall, we had plenty of good looks. I know there’s a bunch of shots our shooters are going to look back and go ‘Man, if I had that one again,'” said Taylor.

“For us, we worked hard, we prepared hard. Obviously it wasn’t the type of offensive executive that we wanted, but we’ll learn from it and get better moving forward.”

The Scarborough Shooting Stars (11-9) dominated the Brampton Honey Badgers (8-12) 98-74 in the Eastern Conference’s play-in game earlier in the evening. Scarborough will hit the road to play the Ottawa Blackjacks (12-8) on Sunday. The winners of the two quarterfinals will go to the ‘final four’ Championship Weekend (Aug. 11-13) and meet host Vancouver Bandits (8-12) and No. 1 seed Niagara River Lions (13-7).

The previous CEBL playoff attendance record was 2,585 fans.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31