Either the Ottawa Blackjacks or Scarborough Shooting Stars will register their first win of the CEBL season Thursday. Both teams are 0-2 going into the 7:30 p.m. game at Ottawa’s TD Place.

The two Ottawa losses came at the hands of the Fraser Valley Bandits and Montreal Alliance. In those two games, a consistent factor has been the play of Deng Adel. The six foot five forward from South Sudan has been impactful on both ends of the floor. He scored 37 points on 87 per cent shooting in their first game to go with nine rebounds, five assists and one steal. He followed up his 37-point performance with 19 points against Montreal alongside three rebounds, two assists and a steal. Alongside Deng, a key contributor for the BlackJacks has been Walt Lemon Jr. from the guard position. Lemon scored 12 points in the BlackJacks opener and followed it up with 21 in their loss to the Alliance.

The Ottawa combination of Lemon and Adel will have a matchup against Jalen Harris, Kyle Alexander and Kameron Chatman, three impactful players for the Shooting Stars. Harris is a key part of a fast paced Scarborough offence with backcourt pairing Xavier Rathan-Mayes who looks to score when he gets the opportunity.

The Shooting Stars have a strong duo at the forward position with Chatman and Alexander. The presence on the boards has assisted the high volume of shots Harris, Rathan-Mayes and JV Mukama have put up. In the Shooting Stars first game against a similar style with the Guelph Nighthawks, the Shooting Stars outrebounded Guelph 17-12 on the offensive glass and scored 32 points in the paint, thanks to the effort inside from forwards like Alexander who recorded 13 rebounds and Chatman who scored 21 points.

The BlackJacks have found their offence inside the paint with drives to the rim and low post shots from their forwards. On the other end, Scarborough has put up a high volume of threes with their guards and used their posts for second chance opportunities and spacing. The clashing styles will go head to head on June 2 and one of these two teams will gain some momentum going into the rest of the season.

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 Instagram , Twitter , TikTok , LinkedIn , Facebook & YouTube .