The Fraser Valley Bandits snapped their three-game losing streak at home on Sunday afternoon with a 95-88 win over the Ottawa BlackJacks at Langley Events Centre.
The Bandits improve to 10-7 on the season and clinch a playoff spot with the win. The BlackJacks drop to 5-11 with a playoff spot still clinched due to hosting CEBL Championship Weekend in August. The trio’s 75 points combined made up 78 per cent of the team’s total on Friday.
“I’m really pleased [with the performance]. It was great for the guys to build self confidence—we’ve had a lot of moving pieces and guys not playing together,” Fraser Valley head coach Mike Taylor said. “I love the compete-level defensively and I’m so proud of the guys. It’s a great win for us.”
Thomas Kennedy finished with a game-high 27 points for the Bandits on 10-16 shooting to go along with 6 rebounds. Shane Gibson netted 25 points on 11-21 shooting and James Karnik scored 23 points and snagged 9 rebounds on his birthday.
“We feel like we have a really strong front court right now and Karnik and Kennedy played that way,” Taylor said. “We were basically just attacking the four. Whoever [Tyrell] Green was matched up on, we tried to put the ball in the post.”
Walt Lemon Jr. led Ottawa with 24 points on 10-21 shooting to go along with 8 assists with 22 of his points coming in the second half. Zena Edosomwan added 18 points and 7 rebounds, while Bernard Thonpson hit 5 of 7 threes to put up 17 points. Tyrell Green also reached double-figures for Ottawa in a losing effort, netting 13 points.
The first quarter saw the Bandits start with a 6-0 run. James Karnik and Thomas Kennedy were effective in the front court for Fraser Valley, scoring 17 of their 22 first quarter points. Bernard Thompson was as hot as the fires of Mustafar in the opening frame, going 3-3 from outside for 9 points. He beat the buzzer with a triple to cut the Bandits’ lead to 22-16 heading into the second quarter.
After their lead was cut to two points, the Bandits went on a 14-0 run powered by the trio of Karnik, Kennedy and Shane Gibson. The run forced an Ottawa timeout, and Zena Edosomwan finished off the quarter strong for the BlackJacks after the timeout. However, Gibson showed off his stellar footwork by pivoting and scoring in the mid-range to close out the quarter, giving the Bandits a 47-30 lead heading into the locker room.
Thomas Kennedy’s 16 points led all scorers at halftime, with Karnik scoring 15 and Gibson adding 12 for Fraser Valley. The trio of Kennedy, Karnik and Gibson combined for 43 of the Bandits’ 47 first half points. Edosomwan led Ottawa with 11 points at half, with Walt Lemon Jr. providing a sour first half performance with 2 points on 1-9 shooting. The BlackJacks collectively shot 28 per cent from the field in the opening 20 minutes and were outscored in the paint 28-12.
Lemon Jr. picked up the pace in the third quarter for Ottawa, leading the BlackJacks on a 12-4 run early in the third to cut the Bandits’ lead back to 10 points. Mike Taylor was forced into timeout, during which a fan hit both shots from the Flair Airlines logo, wining a trip to CEBL Championship weekend and free Flair Airlines tickets for a year. Coming out of the timeout, Zena Edosomwan did some skywalking for an and-one jam. The BlackJacks continued their run and made it a one possession game. A triple from former Bandit Kadre Gray gave Ottawa the lead, but back-to-back buckets from Kennedy and a tough finish from Gibson closed out the quarter, giving Fraser Valley a 68-63 lead after three.
It was a back-and-forth start to the fourth quarter, but a run from Fraser Valley extended their lead to nine points with just a few minutes until Elam time. The Ottawa bench flirted with a timeout but a 6-0 run of their own cut the lead back down to three before a Thomas Kennedy alley-oop jam gave the Bandits a 86-81 lead heading into the Elam ending with a target score of 95.
Lemon Jr. made it a two-point game once again after an unconventional three-point play, getting a putback on his own missed free throw. Gibson extended the lead back to four for Fraser Valley before Lemon picked up an and-one for another three-point play. Gibson banked in a mid-range leaner to put the Bandits just four points away from victory and forced a BlackJacks timeout. After the timeout, Deng Adel missed a floater and Shane Gibson came back the other way and banked in another to put the Bandits up 93-87. James Karnik ended the game with an and-one to cap a spectacular birthday performance and snap the the three-game losing streak.
The BlackJacks will host the Newfoundland Growlers on Tuesday at 7:30 ET at TD Place while the Bandits will wait over a week for their next game at the Meridian Centre next Monday against the Niagara River Lions.
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 Ottawa Black Jacks are available at https://www.theblackjacks.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 Lea gue 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 .