Rai has career night as River Lions clinch Eastern Conference
Aaryn Rai scored a CEBL career high 28 points and added 12 rebounds in a double-double performance that helped the Niagara River Lions (13-5) clinch the Eastern Conference’s top spot with an 80-71 victory over the Brampton Honey Badgers (6-11) Wednesday night from Meridian Centre.
The win was the River Lions’ sixth straight as they improved to a perfect 9-0 at home.
“I think we’re just competing. We’re together and we’re competing,” said River Lions head coach Victor Raso after the game. “That’s been the key over these last six games. Tonight we were a little shorthanded, not being with Khalil [Ahmad], lots of guys had to step up and had to take on a bigger role.”
With first place secured and Montreal receiving an automatic bye to Championship Weekend as the host club, Niagara has earned the right to host the Eastern Conference semifinal in a few weeks’ time.
Stepping into the starting lineup in place of star guard Ahmad, Rai stuffed the sheet, shooting an efficient 12-for-21 from the field, including 4-for-5 from three-point range, while also adding four assists, getting after it defensively with four blocks and hauling down seven offensive rebounds.
“I was just aggressive,” Rai said. “Guys were just finding me. With Khalil out we missed a lot of scoring, so everybody had to step up and I guess I just made some shots.”
Added Raso: “That’s the big thing with us, it doesn’t always have to be Khalil, where in the past it needed to be him. Aaryn Rai is a phenomenal player. He’s an excellent matchup in the ball screen, the post, he can shoot it, he’s an excellent rebounder and tonight he had to start and he was fantastic.”
Rai had it going early and often, scoring 12 points in the first half as his River Lions carried a 41-31 lead into the midway break. Outside of Rai, neither team had anyone really going offensively, but because Niagara shot 5-of-13 from three compared to the 1-of-7 mark from Brampton, the River Lions were able to build a comfortable lead.
The cushion that the Lions built for themselves served them well in the second half as they carried a 71-58 lead into Target Score Time, where they showed some cracks.
Zane Waterman scored six of his Honey Badgers-high 24 points in Target Score Time including a driving layup to pull Brampton within five, 76-71. Ultimately, things proved to be too little, too late for the Honey Badgers, but they made things far more interesting with the clock turned off than it probably should have been.
As has been a trend all season long for them, there simply wasn’t enough offence from the Honey Badgers. Both sides were playing the defence necessary to win, but while Rai was able to step up in a big way for Niagara with Jahvon Blair having a bit of an off night (20 points on 16 field goal attempts), Brampton just didn’t have enough outside of Waterman, particularly with starting point guard LJ Thorpe going 0-for-5 from the floor.
With three games left in their season time is running out on the Honey Badgers to try to reclaim No. 3 in the East from the surging Ottawa BlackJacks and claim that final playoff spot. The strong play shown from them in Target Score Time, where they outscored Niagara 13-9, could be the blueprint to get themselves into the playoffs.
“It’s just a matter of putting those efforts that we had in Target Score Time at the beginning of the game and throughout the game,” said Brampton head coach Sheldon Cassimy. “I think we will be able to do that. We’re still locked in, we’re still focused, we still know that we have a shot to get into the playoffs and you never know what can happen from there.”
The River Lions never trailed during Wednesday’s contest.
Brampton centre Prince Oduro hauled down 12 rebounds and blocked three shots to reach the 250-rebound milestone for his CEBL career in the regular season and 50-block mark for his career in the regular season and playoffs.
Up Next
The Eastern Conference champion River Lions will finish off their 2024 CEBL regular season with a home-and-home series with a pair of games against the BlackJacks beginning with a visit to the nation’s capital on Saturday.
Brampton will next visit Scarborough on Saturday to take on the Shooting Stars.
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