The Scarborough Shooting Stars held off the Guelph Nighthawks to avenge their loss in the season-opener with a 94-89 win at Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre on Thursday night.
The victory extends the Shooting Stars’ winning streak to three games with four wins in their last five. Scarborough improves to 8-5 on the season in fourth place in the Canadian Elite Basketball League standings while Guelph falls to 6-7 in seventh place.
Former Toronto Raptor Jalen Harris powered the Shooting Stars offence once again with a team-high 24 points on 9-16 shooting from the field and 2-3 from three to go along with 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals. Kameron Chatman and Isiaha Mike continued to establish themselves as the next options in the offence. Chatman netted 18 points while Mike added 13 points, 7 rebounds and the Elam-ending bucket.
Kalif Young also had a monster performance for Scarborough and may have been their key to victory. Young scored 13 points, dished out 4 assists, protected the rim with 3 blocks, and hauled in 11 rebounds that included 6 offensive boards.
“Kalif’s a tremendous team player and he’s taken it upon himself to be that inside presence,” Scarborough head coach Chris Exilus said “He’s shown what he can really do. He’s a great passer, he’s been consistent, he’s a glue guy, he’s played a lot of minutes and does a lot of good things for us. So if you watch the game you’ll see how much of an impact player he is.”
Ahmed Hill and Cat Barber carried the offensive load for Guelph, scoring a game-high 25 points apiece in a losing effort. AJ Hess added 13 points off the bench for the Nighthawks with Clayton Henry adding 11.
Scarborough outworked Guelph on the glass all night, with 16 offensive rebounds to the Nighthawks’ 3. The Shooting Stars won the total rebounding battle 49-39 and had 15 second chance points. They also dominated points in the paint, outscoring Guelph 48-34.
“They murdered us on the glass,” Guelph head coach Charles Kissi said. “We didn’t do a great job in the second half on the glass and they never opened the game up but when we responded with something, they got an offensive rebound. That was the difference in the game for them. Otherwise we shot really well and didn’t turn it over as bad as we have recently.”
In the first quarter, Jalen Harris and Ahmed Hill were dueling . Hill led all scorers with 12 of Guelph’s 18 total points in the opening frame, scoring off a pair of three-pointers, a mid-range jumper, and by getting to the rim. David Muenkat closed out the quarter with back-to-back interior finishes to give the Shooting Stars a 24-18 lead heading into the second quarter.
Lucas Nogueira had a big impact to start the second quarter, protecting the rim with a nasty block in transition on Danilo Djurcic and finishing an alley-pop flush. Harris had 8 huge points in the second for Scarborough but a pair of Henry threes to close the quarter cut the Shooting Stars’ lead to 44-41 heading into halftime.
Both teams shot 45 per cent from the field after 20 minutes of action, with Harris leading all scorers at 17 points with Kalif Young chipping in 9 points that included some high-flying dunks. Hill led the scoring at half for Guelph with 12 points while Cat Barber added 9.
Kameron Chatman and Isiaha Mike stepped up their games in the third quarter for the Shooting Stars with Chatman scoring 7 third-quarter points and Mike scoring two big buckets to open the quarter. Some timely threes and free throws from the Nighthawks kept the game close, entering the fourth quarter trailing the Shooting Stars 68-64.
Cat Barber completed a four-point play early in the quarter to cut the lead to one but Kalif Young continued his great game with a tip-in on the next possession. Sean Miller-Moore scored on back-to-back possessions with a contact lefty layup and a transition score cut into the lead, and an Ahmed Hill triple made it a two-point game. However, the Shooting Stars went on a 7-0 run before the Elam ending to give them a 85-78 lead with a target score of 94.
Hill opened Elam time with a layup to cut the Scarborough lead to five points. Chatman had the first three points in the final stretch for Scarborough while the Nighthawks went 5-6 on free throws. Šarūnas Vasiliauskas gave the Shooting Stars a chance to win by coming off a screen and hitting a three with just a sliver of space. Jalen Harris hit a free throw and Young made a pass into the post where Mike closed out the game with a layup.
The Nighthawks will look to bounce back on Saturday at the Meridian Centre in a matchup with the River Lions at 7:00 p.m. ET. The Shooting Stars will play on Thursday at FirstOntario Centre against the first-place Hamilton Honey Badgers.
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.
Scarborough Shooting Stars tickets are available at https://www.scarboroughshootingstars.ca/tickets554a5865 while Guelph Nighthawks season tickets are available at https://www.thenighthawks.ca/tickets .
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