Brampton Honey Badgers and Scarborough Shooting Stars Face-off in Regular Season Finale
For the second time in less than a week, the Brampton Honey Badgers (8-11) (-111) and Scarborough Shooting Stars (10-9) (-121) face-off, and this time it’ll be from the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, with tip-off set for 7:30 pm ET on Monday.
The game will be available for streaming live on TSN+, CEBL+ powered by BetVictor, and on the CEBL Mobile app available on iOS and Android devices.
Fans should keep an eye on this game, not only because it’s the last regular season game of the CEBL season, but also a preview of the East play-in that’ll be taking place on August 4, between the two squads. This will be the fourth and final regular season contest between the Eastern Conference rivals, with their most recent head-to-head having taken place last Wednesday.
Not only did the convincing 103-86 win give the Honey Badgers their first win against the Shooting Stars this year, but it also clinched their spot in the 2023 CEBL playoffs. It was a decisive third quarter run that ended up determining that game, as Brampton outscored Scarborough by 18 points in the frame on route to their second consecutive win.
The 103 points by the Honey Badgers were the most they’ve put up in a game all season, and the scoring outburst wasn’t a surprise considering six different Brampton players scored in double figures. Their top scorer on the night was Shamiel Stevenson who finished with 28 points, 10 rebounds, and three blocks, in just his fifth game with the squad.
The guard breezed past his previous season-high mark of eight points while also tallying his first double-double performance and was also a major contributor to that game-changing third quarter as he scored 11 points in the frame, shooting 5-6 along the way.
His importance can’t be understated, at least if you ask his head coach Antoine Broxsie, who thinks Stevenson’s addition has been one of the difference makers for the squad as of late.
“One of the keys [for our recent success] is Shamiel,” Broxsie said after Brampton’s third win in five games. “He’s a bowling ball, he goes down-hill, and is tough to stop. He causes a lot of mismatch problems because of how big he is and what he can do around the basket.”
Two games were as far as the win streak got for Brampton, as their latest outing ended in an 82-72 loss at the hands of the Niagara River Lions. Despite the Honey Badgers shooting better from distance and outrebounding the River Lions, they struggled mightily from the field as they shot just 36 per cent in their second-lowest scoring output of the year.
The guard-duo of Christian Vital and Koby McEwen, the Honey Badger’s scoring leaders struggled on the night as they combined for just seven points, while Zane Waterman led the squad with his 15 points and eight rebounds. Beyond the team’s lack of success scoring, it was their inability to hold onto the ball that cost them quite a bit.
Brampton committed 23 turnovers, 12 more than Niagara, with their poor ball-handling leading to 32 extra points for the River Lions as a result. Fans of the Honey Badgers will hope for a bounce back performance as they try and even up the season series with the Shooting Stars.
On the other side, Scarborough saw their three-game win streak snapped as a result of the blowout loss, their first defeat since clinching a playoff spot of their own just under a week ago. Things didn’t get much better for the Shooting Stars as they followed-up that performance with another loss, an 82-79 defeat against the Vancouver Bandits.
Strong shooting from distance was one of Scarborough’s strengths during their recent three-game win streak – averaging 11 makes a game on 38 per cent – but have struggled knocking down the long-ball in their back-to-back losses. During that span, the Shooting Stars have averaged just four makes on 15.5 per cent shooting, well below their season average of 7.6 makes on a 30 per cent clip.
Despite the loss, there were positives for Scarborough, namely the play of Isiaha Mike, who put up a season-high 23 points and nine rebounds on better than 50 per cent shooting from the field and distance. The forward has now played five games with the Shooting Stars and has hit double-figures in all of his outings, making him a great addition for the squad heading into the post-season.
Mike was joined by Cat Barber, who had 19 points of his own, namely a three-pointer he drilled in the first quarter of the game that marked the guard’s 1000th career point in the CEBL. Barber became the second player in league history to reach the mark, doing it just two days after his former teammate Ahmed Hill did the same thing.
Fans can keep an eye on Scarborough’s scoring leader as he builds on the career total, while also trying to help his team get back in the win column ahead of the playoffs.
With both teams having punched their tickets to the post-season this game won’t secure any team’s spot but as mentioned previously, will be a preview for the Eastern Conference play-in that’ll be taking place on Friday.
Full conference standings can be found here.
All games will also be streamed live internationally on the CEBL’s OTT platform, CEBL+ powered by BetVictor, and on the CEBL Mobile app for iOS and Android devices. Full list of betting props available on BetVictor. Preview written by Zulfi Sheikh (@zulfi_sheikh).
A league created by Canadians for Canadians, the CEBL has the highest percentage of Canadian players of any professional league in the country, with 71 percent of its current rosters being Canadians. Players bring experience from the NBA, NBA G League, top international leagues, the Canadian National team program, and top NCAA programs as well as U SPORTS. The only First Division Professional League Partner of Canada Basketball. The CEBL season runs from May through August. Head to CEBL.ca for more information or follow us (@cebleague) on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook & YouTube.
