The Fraser Valley Bandits will look to snap a two-game losing streak in their return home to the Langley Events Centre on Friday night where they’ll face the Guelph Nighthawks at 7:00 p.m. PT.
The Bandits enter the game at 9-6 in a battle with the Scarborough Shooting Stars for third place in the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) standings while the Nighthawks come in at 7-8 in a battle with the Edmonton Stingers and, Saskatchewan Rattlers for the fifth, sixth and seventh seeds. The Nighthawks have struggled away from home so far this season, going 1-5 on the road in their first six games.
The Nighthawks are coming off a 16-point win over Montreal that snapped a five-game losing streak. Three of those five losses came on the road and each loss came against a team with a record above .500. It also included a five-point loss at home to their opponents on Friday, the Fraser Valley Bandits.
Fraser Valley is following back-to back losses against the Montreal Alliance and the Ottawa BlackJacks and are losers of four of their last five games. Shane Gibson and Thomas Kennedy were the x-factors in the Bandits’ previous victory over the Nighthawks. Gibson scored 23 points while Kennedy contributed 21 points and 9 rebounds in the win.
Gibson enters the game leading the Bandits in scoring at 18.8 points per game on 47 per cent shooting from the field and 44 per cent from three. Meanwhile, Fraser Valley’s leading scorer last season, Alex Campbell is netting 14.5 points per game and 5.3 rebounds per game while Murphy Burnatowiski is averaging just under 10 points per game on 41 per cent shooting from three.
Cat Barber is in the top-five in the CEBL in points per game at 20.3 on 45 per cent shooting, with Ahmed Hill, AJ Lawson, and TJ Lall rounding out the Nighthawks’ offence. Hill is scoring 18.2 points per game, and is pushing the rock up the hill in 15 games played for Guelph. AJ Lawson averages 16.5 points per game, 5.4 rebounds per game and 3 assists per game while Lall is averaging 11.3 points per game, 7.2 rebounds per game, and over 1 steal and block per game.
The game will stream on CEBL+ live internationally and in Canada at cbcsports.ca, the CBC Sports app for iOS
and Android devices and the free CBC Gem streaming service. Games are also available on the CEBL’s official app, CEBL Mobile, available on iOS and Android devices.
Fraser Valley Bandits tickets are available at https://www.thebandits.ca/tickets while Guelph Nighthawks tickets are available at https://www.thenighthawks.ca/tickets .
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 .