LANGLEY, BC – Hamilton climbed to the top of the CEBL standings after they defeated the Fraser Valley Bandits 80-68 in-front of a School Day crowd in Langley British Columbia. Fraser Valley moves to 3-2 on the season and Hamilton who are now 4-1, splits the 2022 season series at 1-1.
The first quarter started and the big men found their rhythm, specifically Zane Waterman and Murphy Burnatowski. Fraser Valley started on a 9-0 run thanks to three straight triples from Burnatowski who made two and Shane Gibson who made one. The Bandits extended their lead to as much as 17-6 before Waterman hit back to back threes and spaced out the Bandits defence for Caleb Agada and Keevan Veinot to get to the lane.
Both teams traded runs in the first quarter, which ended with the Bandits holding a 21-20 lead. Fraser Valley started the quarter 5-7 from three-point range but finished 5-11 as Hamilton tightened their defence and went on a run themselves.
Hamilton started the second quarter moving the ball around and trying to beat the Bandits half-court defence. The result, scoring from everyone on the floor as Nikola Djogo, Agada, Christian Vital and Jeremiah Tilmon all added to the scoreboard and Hamilton’s lead.
Fraser Valley tried to get their offence going by putting up shots from all around the floor but nothing could fall as they only scored seven points in the first seven minutes of the quarter. The Bandits went on a 5-0 run in the final two minutes to stop the Honey Badgers from pushing their lead to double digits. It was 36-33 Hamilton at halftime.
Just as the game started, Burnatowski started the third quarter with a pair of made threes to tie the Bandits and Honey Badgers at 39. Tilmon scored five early in the third to keep the Honey Badgers at pace with the resurging Bandits offence. Shane Gibson scored 10 points and Tilmon scored seven points in the third quarter. They contributed to a back and forth affair that saw 13 lead changes throughout the first three quarters.
Fraser Valley led 55-52 at the end of the third. Leading the Bandits was Gibson with 18 points and close behind was Burnatowski with five made threes and 15 points. Tilmon’s seven-point quarter put him at 13 points and six rebounds going into the fourth.
Keeping the Honey Badgers consistently in striking distance to take the lead back has been their rebounds. Three minutes into the fourth Hamilton was plus 9 on the boards (34-25) and winning the offensive boards 12-3. The second chances allowed Hamilton to capitalize on a shooting slump from the Bandits to start the quarter and take a four-point lead just under two minutes until Elam time. When Fraser Valley found a three from Alex Campbell to bring the Bandits within one, Hamilton responded with Agada to push the lead back to four. Hamilton went into Elam time with a 69-65 lead, target score set at 78.
Burnatowski started Elam time with a three-pointer, his sixth of the game and cut the Bandits deficit back to one. Just as they did all game, Hamilton responded with a three of their own this time from Vital, and Hamilton went within six points of a win, 72-68. From then on, Hamilton used their presence inside to get rebounds and stop layups, and they moved the ball to get their shooters open. Hamilton sealed the game off of a Waterman three and won 80-68.
Hamilton had six players finish in double digit points off of their ball movement offence. Agada led all Honey Badgers with 17 points, nine rebounds, six assists and two steals. Tilmon had 14 points, nine rebounds, an assist and three blocks. Djogo, Vital and Waterman each recorded 13 points and Veinot came off the bench for 10 points.
Gibson led the Bandits with 22 points, three rebounds, an assist, steal and block. Burnatowski made six threes to record 18 points to go with a rebound and assist. Campbell was the other Bandits player in double digit points with 12 points, three rebounds and an assist.
“11 a.m. games are never easy, but I thought our guys did a really good job. We found out this morning one of our starters isn’t feeling great so it’s next man up mentality. Our defensive energy was amazing, we’ve talked about that’s where our identity is going to be at so proud of the effort we got especially in these early morning games” said Hamilton Head Coach Ryan Schmidt.
“We got off to a great start, guys were really ready, excited to play, hit a lot of shots early. As the game went on you could see the physicality from Hamilton became a factor. At the end they did a great job defensively making us work for scores. I think they outscored us 32-16 in the paint so 2-1 in the paint, they out-rebounded us as well and really did a good job controlling their defensive boards. At the end of the day we’ll look back at how we responded together to the physicality of their defence. I’m really excited about our team, we got outplayed in Elam ending but for me you have to give a lot of credit to Hamilton for how they played today” said Fraser Valley Head Coach Mike Taylor.