After becoming the first Canadian Elite Basketball League team to clinch a playoff spot, the Hamilton Honey Badgers will look to build on their league-best 10-3 record in a trip to the Edmonton Expo Centre to face the two-time defending champion Edmonton Stingers at 2:00 p.m. MT on Saturday.
The Honey Badgers enter Saturday’s matinee as winners of three consecutive games after losing two games in a row late in June. Hamilton is coming off a 79-72 win over the Alliance in Montreal, a 86-75 win over the Ottawa BlackJacks at home, and another home win over the Guelph Nighthawks 95-76. Without leading scorer Christian Vital and Jeremiah Tilmon, Caleb Agada led the way for Hamilton against Montreal with 16 points, 4 assists and 3 rebounds.
Meanwhile, Edmonton are reeling from their 28-point loss to the Niagara River Lions at the Meridian Centre on Wednesday. It was their biggest loss of the season and their largest margin of defeat since losing by 42 points to the River Lions in 2019. The Stingers had 22 turnovers, shot 38 per cent from the floor, 18 per cent from three and 62 per cent from the free throw line in the loss. Edmonton’s leading scorer Brody Clarke also had an off night against Niagara, going 0-4 from the field with 3 points after back-to back games scoring 25 points or more.
Clarke leads the Stingers with 14.4 points per game on 49.3 per cent shooting and 42.9 per cent from three. Former Canadian Player of the Year Jordan Baker has been great once again this season for the Stingers. Baker is averaging 11.8 points per game, a league-best 10.8 rebounds per game, 5.2 steals per game and 1.4 steals per game. Marlon Johnson Jr. is averaging 10.4 points per game and 5.9 rebounds per game while Aher Uguak is netting 10.2 points per game off the bench.
Former Ottawa Gee-Gee Caleb Agada has been doing it all for the Hamilton Honey Badgers this season, averaging 14.5 points per game, 6.3 rebounds per game, 5.6 assists per game and 2.2 steals per game. The Honey Badgers will be without their leading scorer Christian Vital, who is playing in the NBA Summer League for the Toronto Raptors. Several players stepped up in their win over Montreal with Agada absent, with Koby McEwan, Zane Waterman, Keevan Veinot and Michael Okafor all reaching double figures. Veinot, a Dalhousie alumni, had an especially great game with 10 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals.
The Honey Badgers enter the game averaging 85.7 points per game on 45.5 per cent shooting from the field, both third-best in the CEBL. Hamilton is also third in three-pointers made on 35.7 per cent shooting. Meanwhile, Edmonton are seventh in the league in points per game but are first in assists with 21.5 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.
Edmonton Stingers season tickets are available at https://www.thestingers.ca/season-tickets17e760ad while Hamilton Honey Badgers season tickets are available at https ://www.honeybadgers.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 .