The Hamilton Honey Badgers, 3-3 and the third seed heading into the CEBL Summer Series playoff competition, and the Niagara River Lions, 2-4 and the sixth seed, meet for the second straight year to open post-season play. The winner of today’s quarterfinal bout will advance to Saturday afternoon’s semifinal round. Game time is 5 p.m.
Last season the River Lions bested the Honey Badgers in three of four regular season meetings only to fall, 104-103, to the underdogs from Hamilton in the semifinals of CEBL Championship Weekend. This time around it’s Hamilton that comes in as the higher seed, and the River Lions looking to avenge last season’s disappointment. Niagara topped Hamilton, 97-85, in the first game of the CEBL Summer Series on their homecourt at the Meridian Centre. The River Lions then lost four straight games before edging Ottawa, 81-79, Tuesday to stay alive in a game that would have placed them last in the standings and ended their 2020 season.
First Meeting
Daniel Mullings scored 22 points and collected nine rebounds en route to being named Player of the Game and leading the River Lions to a 97-85 victory over Hamilton on July 25. Mullings hit his first five shots from the field and Niagara took a 48-34 lead into the lockerroom at halftime on the strength of 52 percent shooting from the field. The Honey Badgers managed to hit just 34 percent of their shots in the opening half and were outpaced16-7 in fastbreak points—a category that became a strong suit for Hamilton throughout round robin competition. Brianté Weber made his debut in the pinstripes with a team-high 22 points to go along with six rebounds and three steals. The Honey Badgers were without the inside play of Derek Cooke, Jr. who missed the game while working himself into playing condition following the extended layoff and quarantining when he entered Canada.
Trending
A glance at the league’s Team Statistics following the six-game round robin competition shows Hamilton atop the majority of categories. Hamilton ranks first in defensive rebounding (32.8 per game) and total rebounds (46.2), assists (19.0), steals (10.3), and fastbreak points (25.5). The Honey Badgers also rank first in free throw attempts (23.7 per game), but last in accuracy at .711. They’re also the most generous team in the league, giving away 19 turnovers each night.
Hot hands are likely to make the difference in today’s game. Niagara is shooting just .402 from the field through six games, and Hamilton is hitting at a .429 rate so whichever team can string together a couple of scoring runs may have the edge. Hamilton is a defense-first team where six players average at least one steal per game, and opponents are shooting just .416 from the floor. Niagara limits opponents to a .421 shooting percentage, so on paper today’s matchup appears to be a tight low-scoring affair. The River Lions averaged 77.5 points and allowed 83.5, while the Honey Badgers posted 86.8 points and surrendered 85.0 during the round robin.
The Niagara backcourt trio of Trae Bell-Haynes (14.8 ppg), Kassius Robertson (13.8), and Daniel Mullings (13.3) account for 41.9 of those 77.5 team points. Bell-Haynes has played like a Summer Series MVP candidate, leading his team in scoring, assists (4.0 per game), steals (1.4 per game) and shooting .532 from the field and .455 from three-point range. Robertson has been the team’s most potent long-range sniper having nailed 18 of 49 three-point attempts (.367).
Hamilton has shown the most balanced lineup in the Summer Series with eight players averaging 19 or more minutes of playing time through six games. Brianté Weber’s 25.3 average leads the way. Similarly, in a scoring attack fueled by the transition game where Hamilton averages 25.5 fastbreak points to its opponents’ 17.8 points, five players are averaging at least 9.8 points a game, topped by Weber’s 12.3. Hamilton’s 46.2 to 42.3 rebounding advantage enables the team to get out and run as it likes to do.
Hamilton’s 19.0 turnovers each game has led to an average of 20.7 opponent’s points, but Niagara is forcing only 15.8 giveaways so the Honey Badgers will likely need to curb their generosity to emerge victorious. Throughout round robin competition, Niagara has averaged only 18.5 free throw attempts (and 13.3 points from the line) to the opponents’ 23.5 attempts per game (17.8 points).
Eyes of The World on CEBL Summer Series
In addition to CBC televising Saturday’s semifinals and Sunday’s CEBL Championship game, all three of this weekend’s games are being televised on Fox Sports Australia (2.25 million subscribers). The three games are also being livestreamed on the TapGo app in the Philippines, which has an astounding 170 million mobile connections in a country of 106 million people. CEBL partner MediaPro Canada is in discussions with distributors in Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore that would add another 9.5 million viewers for the weekend semifinals and Championship game.
All CEBL Summer Seriesgames have been being livestreamed on the CBC Gem app across Canada and on cbcsports.ca around the world. Twitch.tv (17.5 million global users) started livestreaming the games midway through the Summer Series.
