Shooting Stars soar over lethargic Sea Bears

The Winnipeg Sea Bears arrive at the midpoint of the Canadian Elite Basketball League season on a losing note.

The pro hoops squad was bested 103-93 by the Scarborough Shooting Stars before 7,575 fans at Canada Life Centre on Friday.

Winnipeg has now lost back-to-back contests after building a four-game winning streak with its new-look squad.

“We talked about Scarborough’s type of style of play, we knew there were three areas we needed to do the job to stop them: we needed to do the job transition defence, impacting the ball one-on-one and controlling the defensive boards, and I think we were zero-for-three tonight,” said head coach Mike Taylor, whose club was outrebounded 43-30 on this night.

Shooting Stars guard Terquavion Smith scored the game-winning basket. The visitors entered Target Score Time with a 94-80 advantage.

Winnipeg dropped to 3-4 at home and 5-7 overall, fourth in the Western Conference. Scarborough improved to 7-5, good for second in the Eastern Conference.

It was the final meeting of the regular season between the out-of-conference squads.

“I think a lot of it is that our team has a lot of self-confidence, a lot of self-belief, and I think that they were on cruise control for a lot of these possessions. I think we were a little bit late. Because we were late, we ended up fouling, so we got to be on time, we’ve got to do a better job setting our defence, we’ve got to do a better job doing the physical things in the half-court,” said Taylor.

“We do have a talented offensive team, there’s no doubt, but we see that if you’re not going to show up and be ready to do the hard work and defend, then you’re going to have a tough time stopping good teams.”

Sea Bears star centre Simi Shittu continued to be a force in the paint, registering a team-high 25 points in 29:31 of action. Guards Jalen Harris and Tevian Jones supplied 21 points, respectively.

Newest Sea Bear, guard Cody John, who signed with the club on Thursday, tallied three points in his debut.

John was acquired to provide a reliable shooting presence off the bench for the Sea Bears, who have struggled mightily in that department. He played 16:24 but shot one-for-six from the field and registered one steal and a block as he acclimated to his new surroundings.

The Shooting Stars outscored the Sea Bears 21-12 off the bench.

“It is challenging,” said Shittu. “Obviously, we’re still trying to match each other and figure out each other’s spots and tendencies… we just got to kind of lock in on the mistakes we made today and move forward.”

Donovan Williams, who led the league with 25.5 points per game entering the night, paced all players with a game-high 30 points.

Smith supplied 28 points, while forward Joirdon Nicholas supplied 13 points and seven assists off the bench.

Winnipeg led for all of 2:18 in the contest, and that came during an 8-0 run to open the action.

Scarborough shot the lights out in the opening frame, firing 59 per cent from the field and 60 per cent from beyond the arc to assume a 34-22 lead after the opening frame. Shooting Stars guard Smith led all players with 10 points in the opening frame.

In the second quarter, the visitors began to do their damage from the interior, scoring 20 of their 24 points inside the paint as they sliced through the Winnipeg defence.

Scarborough’s lead grew to as much as 21, but the Sea Bears managed to hang around, wearing a 58-46 deficit at the break.

The Sea Bears cut the deficit to as little as three in the third quarter, but that was as close as they would get. The Shooting Stars held a 78-70 advantage after the third quarter.

Both of Winnipeg’s latest defeats saw the club get away from its defensive system that prevented its opponents from reaching the 90-point threshold during its winning streak.

They have now allowed 201 points in the last two contests.

“I love our team,” said Taylor. “We got off to a really slow start. We waited for some reinforcements. The reinforcements arrived. We got on a big run. We showed flashes of what we can be, but we’ve got to reach that standard of our performance to get to that championship level. And right now, we’re very inconsistent,” said Taylor.

“We’ve got to do a better job with the details, and I think that this is the adversity that produces a really good team. So we’ve got to take ownership of it. We’ve got to grow from it. We’ve got to work to improve.”

The Sea Bears now hit the road for a pair of contests against other Eastern Conference squads. The club is back in action on Tuesday, Canada Day, for a meeting with the Ottawa BlackJacks (4-6). Winnipeg will also face the Niagara River Lions on Friday, July 4.

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jfreysam