Allen shines in Sea Bears ‘most complete effort’

This was vintage Teddy Allen.

The Winnipeg Sea Bears’ star guard has been everything the franchise had hoped for when it agreed to bring him back this season, but it could be argued that Allen — who, albeit, is playing a more team-oriented brand of basketball under head coach Mike Raimbault — hadn’t had one of those prolific offensive performances that first captured the hearts of fans and led to his Most Valuable Player nod in 2023.

Any debate was put to rest on Thursday night, as Allen’s 32-point performance lifted the Sea Bears to a convincing 117-88 victory over the Ottawa BlackJacks at The Arena at TD Place in the nation’s capital.

“Teddy was just being Teddy tonight,” said Simon Hildebrandt. “That’s what he does. He scores the ball at such a crazy level. We made an emphasis throughout this week to get him the ball in places where he can be successful, and I think we really showed that tonight.”

It didn’t matter if he was falling, being double-teamed or fouled in the process — Allen found a way to the bottom of the bucket.

Allen, who also had 12 rebounds, four assists and three steals, did the bulk of his damage in the first half. He got out of the gates hot, scoring 13 of Winnipeg’s first 17 points. By the time halftime arrived, he had 28 points, which was capped by a ridiculous one-handed runner from just inside half-court with three defenders around him as the buzzer sounded.

He outdueled another hot shooter on the opposing side in Matthew Cleveland, who poured in a team-high 27 points for the BlackJacks (4-4), which followed a 35-point outing against the Vancouver Bandits on Tuesday.

“We talked about how we played really well offensively, but we still got more meat on the bone defensively,” Hildebrandt said. “Can we manage to win games when we don’t score 117 points? But we had a ton of assists and limited the turnovers, and that’s always going to be a recipe for success.”

Allen aside, this was the Sea Bears’ most impressive offensive outing of the season. As the game wore on and the BlackJacks dedicated more defenders to him, Allen’s supporting cast stepped up and continued to feast as a collective, connecting on 52 per cent of their field goals and making 18 of 34 attempts from three-point range.

Hildebrant and Trey McGowens chipped in 19 points apiece, while Armani Chaney supplied 14 points off the bench on a night when six players scored in the double-digits.

The Sea Bears held leads of 28-18, 58-44 and 87-67 after the first three quarters before taking a 108-80 lead into Target Score time.

“I thought it was our most complete effort,” said Raimbault. “I thought it was our first game where we played without some bigger lapses, and we showed the toughness to win multiple possessions in a row, even though we dealt with some adversity at different times. I thought from start to finish it was our most complete game so far.”

The Sea Bears improved to 4-3, ending a two-game losing streak and avoiding what could’ve been a complete nightmare, as the club lost two players to injury.

Emmanuel Akot went down with what appeared to be a lower-body injury while going up for a rebound before the game was three minutes old.

Akot has been tremendous thus far, starting all seven contests and averaging 10.8 points, five rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.5 steals while connecting on 48 per cent of his field goals. He’s also been invaluable on the defensive end, as Raimbault has asked him to draw a variety of assignments against some of the opponents’ top scorers.

Akot’s injury preceded Kyler Filewich’s exit in the third quarter. Filewich was in discomfort, holding his head, after diving for a loose ball.

Raimbault, who credited his squad’s resilience and connectivity while overcoming the injuries,didn’t have an update on either player after the game.

“Right now, we’re just trying to think as positively as we can,” he said. “We want to send well-wishes to (Akot) and hope for positive results when we find out what the details of his injury are. Obviously, he’s super important to what we do. I thought the guys did a good job of rallying around tonight, but he’s a pivotal part of our group, and we wish him a speedy return.”

Akot and Filewich’s injuries leave Hildebrandt, Nathan Bilamu and Mason Kraus as the remaining Canadian options who travelled.

David Walker is the only other Canadian on the roster. Raimbault said the club is working on flying him out to Montreal for Friday night’s contest against the Alliance, which is the last stop on a season-long four-game road trip.

“Just try to do all the little things,” said Hildebrandt. “If we three (Hildebrandt, Kraus and Bilamu) can go play good defence and rebound and hit open shots and be unselfish, and keep getting guys like Teddy and (Jeremiah) Tilmon the ball, I think it’ll be a good night for us.”

Friday’s tilt in Montreal is scheduled to tip off at 6:30 p.m. CT.

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