The Saskatchewan Rattlers took care of business at home in SaskTel Centre and defeated the Fraser Valley Bandits 86-77 Wednesday night to improve their record to 2-1 this CEBL season.
The Rattlers were paced by another strong performance from Philadelphia native and former New Orleans Pelicans draft pick Anthony Carr. Carr netted a game-high 25 points to go along with 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals without turning the ball over. In the Elam ending, Carr scored or assisted on 7 of the team’s final 9 points.
Saskatchewan also saw contributions from the rest of their core, with Devonte Bandoo, Jordy Tshimanga and Scottie Lindsey each scoring 14 points. Tshimanga and Bandoo were both active on the glass as well, snatching 13 and 8 rebounds respectively for the Rattlers.
Meanwhile, Shane Gibson led the Bandits’ offence with 17 points and 4 assists. Alex Campbell struggled against his former team, finishing with 14 points on 3-9 shooting from the field and 6-10 from the free throw line. Thomas Kennedy and Chris McLaughlin provided a strong interior presence splitting time at the centre position. Kennedy had 13 points, 5 rebounds and 3 blocks on 6-7 shooting while McLaughlin had 10 points and 5 rebounds on 4-5 shooting. Kadre Gray and Malcolm Duvivier both left the game early with ankle injuries.
Saskatchewan continued to connect from three, shooting 40 per cent on 13-32 shooting as a squad. However, the biggest difference maker for the Rattlers on Wednesday was their tenacity on the glass. They outrebounded Fraser Valley 52-34, picking up 18 offensive rebounds and outscoring the Bandits 20-3 on second chance points.
“The main takeaway from the game was their offensive rebounding,” Bandits head coach Mike Taylor said. “We’ve got to make a physical response in the game on Saturday.”
“I’d rather set my offence up to make the first shot,” Rattlers head coach Dean Demopoulos said. “I’m glad we had a lot of [second chance points] but we need to do better offensively.”
The first quarter saw the Rattlers come out firing. They shot 61 per cent from the field in the opening frame and 62 per cent from three. Saskatchewan went on a run to close out the quarter, powered by Carr’s dish to D’andre Bernard for a dunk off an in bounds pass and a contested Carr three to beat the buzzer. The Rattlers led the Bandits 29-20 after one quarter.
Fraser Valley were able to fight back early in the second quarter with the Rattlers cooling off. The two west coast squads went back and forth all quarter and entered halftime tied 45-45. After the hot start in the first, Saskatchewan finished the half with a 39 per cent field goal percentage, shooting 53 per cent from three. Fraser Valley shot 46 per cent from the field in the first half, but were outrebounded by the Rattlers 27-16.
Carr led all scorers at halftime with 12 points to go along with 5 rebounds, while Lindsey chipped in 11 points, 9 of which came from trifectas. Meanwhile, Shane Gibson attacked the hoop and hit open threes in the first half, leading the Bandits with 11 points heading into the locker room.
Bandoo started to heat up in the third quarter for the Rattlers. The squads exchanged punches with the Bandits finding success in the paint with Kennedy and McLaughlin, who started the second half after picking up 2 early fouls in the first. Tony Carr continued to ball out for Saskatchewan, scoring from the post and from the outside. The teams remained tied at 63 heading into the final quarter of play.
Both teams opened the fourth quarter cold with a single bucket in the first three minutes. However, the Rattlers picked up the pace coming out of a timeout with Tshimanga picking up two putback buckets and an and-one. The Bandits went the first 6 minutes of the quarter with just one field goal and entered the Elam Ending trailing 77-71 with a target score of 86. The Rattlers were able to close it out and evened their all-time record against Fraser Valley to 5-5.
The Bandits and Rattlers won’t have to wait long for a rematch. Saskatchewan travels to British Columbia for a Saturday afternoon matchup at Langley Events Centre at 2 p.m. PT in the second leg of a home-and-home with Fraser Valley.
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 season tickets are available at https://www.thebandits.ca/season-tickets while Saskatchewan Rattlers season tickets are available at https://www.therattlers.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 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 .