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Guelph Nighthawks and Ottawa BlackJacks look to get on track in Guelph
June 9, 2022
CEBL Team

The Guelph Nighthawks and Ottawa BlackJacks both look for their second win of the season as the two teams clash on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET in Guelph. Both the Nighthawks and BlackJacks are 1-3 on the season.

Ottawa travels into Guelph coming off a close 86-85 road win in Newfoundland. The BlackJacks overcame a 42-point performance from Brandon Sampson who set a new CEBL record for points in a single game, and Deng Adel hit the game winner to put Ottawa over the top and get them in the win column. In that game both teams got the ball inside with 46 points in the paint from each side, and capitalized on turnovers with transition baskets. Walt Lemon Jr. stole the ball four times and assisted on eight baskets, Adel recorded two steals and assisted on six baskets and Maxime Boursiquot recorded one steal and assisted on two.

Newfoundland made Ottawa’s execution difficult but Ottawa moved the ball around and got scoring from enough people that when the game came down to the wire they could go back to their leaders in Chad Posthumus and Adel and seal the game.

Adel has a matchup with Cat Barber of the Nighthawks who enters into this matchup coming off three losses and looking to get back on track. Barber alongside Ahmed Hill have led the Nighthawks in each of their games and the agility and court vision has spurred much of the Nighthawks play that relies on creating opportunities off one on one matchups. Barber and Hill are going against Ottawa guards that share the same desire to attack the paint to create opportunities, but the Nighthawks have an advantage around the perimeter with their shooters.

The matchup of Boursiquot and Aj Lawson is two primary pieces of each offence and their contributions have helped each team over the top. The Nighthawks Lawson took six threes in their last matchup with Montreal to go with Hill who took 11. Boursiquot gives the BlackJacks an extra attacking threat to go with their two guards and Posthumus inside the paint.

Posthumus goes up against Julian Roche inside the paint to take control of second chances. Guelph’s guards crash the glass, the trio of Barber, Hill and Lawson recording 15 defensive rebounds in their previous game, but going smaller against a smaller Alliance group, allowed the guards to have more of an impact. Now against a larger BlackJacks who pound the paint and create space for drives, the post play will be vital to create spacing.

All games will be streamed live internationally on the CEBL’s OTT platform, CEBL+ , and on the CEBL Mobile app for iOS and Android devices. Games will also be available to stream live in Canada via cbcsports.ca , the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices, and the free CBC Gem streaming service.


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
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