Honey Badgers Fall to Dominant Libertadores Squad in Brampton for BCLAs
The Brampton Honey Badgers dropped a 107-86 decision to Mexico's Libertadores on Thursday at the CAA Centre in Brampton to close out their Basketball Champions League Americas campaign.
“I think we’re on the right track, figuring things out,” Honey Badgers head coach Sheldon Cassimy said. “This is our second year being in the BCLA. I think the roster turnover [was a challenge]. If we can get the right roster together, I think we will improve from game to game.”
Though the game was closer than the final score suggests, Libertadores never trailed and exploded for a 37-point fourth quarter to blow the game open late.
“Today I don't think the score really shows how we actually grew as a team,” Cassimy said. “I believe when we get the right roster together from the beginning, we can build together and have a better performance next year.”
Ismael Romero led all scorers with 26 points to go with 11 rebounds for Libertadores while Elijah Holman scored 15 points, Branden Frazier had 14 and Trahson Burrell added 13.
The Honey Badgers were led by a 19-point, eight-rebound performance from Elijah Lufile, while Jahvon Henry-Blair and Sean Miller-Moore added 15 points apiece and Chad Posthumus scored 10 points.
“Give credit to the other team,” Lufile said. Really great shooters.”
Brampton trailed by 11 after the opening 10 minutes as Libertadores opened the game shooting 60 percent in the quarter, including 5-for-7 from beyond the arc.
Libertadotes finished the game shooting 61 percent from the floor and 54 percent from beyond the arc where they finished 14-for-26. In comparison, Brampton shot 43 percent from the floor and 30 percent from deep, making just 7-of-26 three-point attempts.
The second quarter was much closer, as Brampton outscored Libertadores by a point, 22-21, to go into the half trailing by 10 after a strong effort from Posthumus inside, Lufile on the offensive glass, and Henry-Blair hitting multiple three-pointers, including one to close the quarter.
“I think [it’s like] Coach mentioned last game, in the first half we were trying to gel together a little bit, just having a slow start,” Lufile said. “Each day we got a lot better but it just seemed like we couldn’t get there.”
Brampton scored first to open the second half with a corner three from Murphy Burnatowski, to trim the deficit to seven points. A hook shot from Posthumus made it a six-point game before back-to-back buckets from Libertadores.
After a layup from Miller-Moore and a three-pointer from Jaylen Babb-Harrison, the deficit was five. A steal from Burnatowski was finished in transition by Miller-Moore to make it a three-point game as Libertadores called timeout with 7:09 remaining in the third.
With their lead shrinking, Libertadores dug in and went on an 8-0 run to go back in front by 11, before free throws from Daniel Mullings and then a three from Kemy Osse brought Brampton back within six with 40 seconds remaining in the quarter. After Frazier made two of three free throws, Osse connected on a pull-up jumper to get Brampton within six, 70-64, after three.
Lufile opened the fourth-quarter scoring with a pair of free throws and then the teams traded three-point plays. Despite Brampton’s best efforts, Libertadores led by double figures throughout much of the fourth quarter. Brampton trailed by 11 with 4:01 remaining when Libertadores scored eight straight to extend their lead to 19 points with 2:22 remaining. They went on to pick up their fifth victory in the group phase of the BCLA's.
Despite the loss, Cassimy enjoyed the team’s BCLA’s second consecutive experience and had high praise for both Mexico’s Libertadores and Nicaragua’s Real Esteli.
“I’ll be shocked if these two teams are not in the final four or the finals,” he said. “They had really good vets that understand the game and it was a really good experience for our young guys to learn how to attack different defences and how to play the right way.”