BlackJacks Search for Seventh Straight in Visit to Brampton
The streaking Ottawa BlackJacks (-108) will aim for a regular season sweep of the defending champion Brampton Honey Badgers (-129) at CAA Centre on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET.
The game will be available for streaming on TSN+, CEBL+ powered by BetVictor and on the CEBL Mobile app available on iOS and Android devices.
The BlackJacks enter as the hottest team in the league with a franchise record six consecutive wins – also the longest winning streak in the CEBL this season. Ottawa lays claim to the best record in the league at 10-5 and first place in the Eastern Conference.
The 9-6 Niagara River Lions are just one game back and nipping at their heels while the Scarborough Shooting Stars hold a 7-6 record with a matchup against Ottawa on the horizon. If the BlackJacks can hold on to first place, they will clinch a spot at CEBL Championship Weekend in Vancouver from August 11-13.
The spectacular stretch of play from Ottawa has seen the team win in a variety of ways with a variety of personnel. In their 101-87 win over Niagara that started the run, the BlackJacks had Zena Edosomwan and Caleb Agada in the lineup.
Agada was released, Edosomwan has been hurt and the duo of Kadre Gray and Thomas Scrubb have been in and out of the lineup with injuries. Deng Adel also left Sunday’s game against Vancouver with what appeared to be a head injury.
Despite the hobbled roster, Ottawa has found ways to not only compete – but win – no matter whose name is on the scoresheet. Jackson Rowe has stepped up as a reliable scorer for the BlackJacks while new acquisitions Matt Coleman III and Jakeenan Gant have had major impacts in the past few wins.
Coleman flirted with a triple-double against Vancouver and snatched two game-changing steals from MVP candidate Justin Wright-Foreman against Saskatchewan. Meanwhile, Gant scored the game-winning putback layup along with 13 points and seven rebounds in his first full game with the team against the Bandits last weekend.
“I mean, they're a really good group,” Ottawa head coach James Derouin said after the win over Vancouver. “We pride ourselves on people-first with our recruiting and who we take on the team. And we're lucky enough again to grab two guys late that sort of fit our culture and how these guys fight and stay together.”
The BlackJacks will add another new face to the mix ahead of Wednesday’s matchup with Brampton. Emmanuel Akot, a 6’8 Winnipeg product, was signed to a contract by the squad on Tuesday (July 11). Akot is coming off of a season with Western Kentucky in university where he averaged 10 points per game.
Derouin hopes Gray and Adel are ready to go for tip-off. Gray enters the contest as the CEBL’s leader in assists per game at 6.7 while averaging 16.8 points per game. Adel is second on the team in points per game at 16.1, assists per game at 4.7 and third in rebounds at 5.6.
The BlackJacks have had the Honey Badgers’ number so far this season. Ottawa picked up a narrow 95-93 win over Brampton in the season opener at TD Place and defeated them again 79-60 in front of their home crowd late in June – one of the six wins on their current streak.
However, Derouin isn’t sure what to expect at CAA Centre on Wednesday against a desperate Brampton team.
“I think you're probably going to see [in] the first quarter if they've got any life left. They've had a tough go but their big three are super talented and they can beat pretty much anybody with those three,” Derouin said. “So we’ve got to be prepared, but we're gonna pick up some bodies as well.”
The defending champion Honey Badgers will look to mount a playoff push in their final seven games of the season. They enter their final regular season meeting with the BlackJacks at 5-8 in fifth place in the Eastern Conference.
Brampton will need to secure a top-four spot in the conference for a chance to reach Championship Weekend in August. They’re one game back of Montreal, two games back of Scarborough, three games back of Niagara and four games back of Ottawa for first.
The Honey Badgers are coming off four consecutive losses, including back-to-back against the Niagara River Lions last week. Brampton fought back from 27 points down last Friday to nearly rally for a win against the River Lions, powered by 26 points from Christian Vital.
“The way we fought in the second half, that’s [the real] us,” Brampton associate head coach Sheldon Cassimy said after the game. “That’s what we have to tap into more in the beginning of the game…we play like that, we put ourselves in a position to win.”
The Honey Badgers will look for their aforementioned big three of Vital, Koby McEwen and Prince Oduro to lead them to a crucial victory over the BlackJacks. Vital ranks in the league’s top five in points per game with 20.2, the top 10 in assists per game at 4.2 and second in steals per game at 2.5.
McEwen is also showcasing his well-rounded game in a starting role this season. He’s fourth in the CEBL in assists per game at 5.5 while averaging 13.5 points and 4.6 rebounds. Meanwhile, Tilmon’s interior presence is also crucial to Brampton’s success. He’s averaging 9.8 points per game, 6.6 rebounds per game and 1.4 blocks per game in 11 starts this season.
Brampton added another piece to the puzzle on Tuesday ahead of the final stretch. Shamiel Stevenson was signed by the Honey Badgers after a spectacular season in Romania where he averaged 19.9 points and 7.4 rebounds per game.
Stevenson played nine games for the BlackJacks last summer alongside his stepbrother Tyrell Green, also recently acquired by the Honey Badgers. The pair will have a chance to end their former team’s great run of form on Wednesday night.
All games are available for streaming on TSN+, CEBL+ powered by BetVictor and on the CEBL Mobile app available on iOS and Android devices.
A league created by Canadians for Canadians with a mission to develop Canadian players, coaches, sports executives, and referees, the CEBL boasts the highest percentage of Canadian players of any pro league in the country with 71 per cent of its 2022 rosters being Canadian. Players bring experience from the NBA, NBA G League, top international pro leagues, the Canadian National team program, and top NCAA programs as well as U SPORTS. Nine players have moved from the CEBL into the NBA following a CEBL season, and 28 CEBL players attended NBA G League training camps during October. The CEBL season runs from May through August. More information about the CEBL is available at CEBL.ca and @cebleague on
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