The Guelph Nighthawks kickoff their 2022 CEBL season tonight against the newly added Scarborough Shooting Stars at 7 p.m. ET at the Sleeman Centre.

One of three expansion teams added for the 2022 CEBL Season, Scarborough along with Newfoundland and Montreal will compete for the championship at the end of CEBL Championship Weekend being held in the nation’s capital from August 12-14.

The Nighthawks enter their fourth season in CEBL competition having finished the 2021 season with a 5-9 record, earning them the fifth seed in the CEBL playoffs where they lost to the Fraser Valley Bandits (104-84) in the Quarterfinals.

Head Coach and General Manager, Charles Kissi has brought back a few key pieces from last season. Notable among them is Cat Barber who led the team in 2021 in points per game (17.6) and assists per game (4.4). He recently averaged a career best 23.0 points per game with the College Park Skyhawks in the NBA G League and also earned himself a 10-day contract with the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA in December 2021. TJ Lall has also re-signed with Guelph after a standout performance in the 2021-22 U SPORTS season with Brock University where he averaged an impressive 22.0 points per game. Lall was drafted by the Guelph in the 2021 CEBL U SPORTS Draft as a developmental player.

Elijah Miller finished his first season with the University of PEI Panthers and has joined Guelph for the season to add depth and U SPORTS experience. A Canadian with NCAA experience, the Nighthawks have also signed AJ Lawson, who played collegiate basketball at the University of South Carolina and is one of the players with national team experience, playing with Team Canada as a part of the U18 and U19 team, and now added to the World Cup Qualifying group for the upcoming set of qualifier matches. Lawson also adds NBA G League experience, suiting up for the College Park Skyhawks alongside Barber. To compliment the Canadian experience, Guelph brought in two international players, Kyliann Rotardier from Orleans Loiret Basket in France, and Madut Akec from South Sudan who played collegiate basketball at Detroit Mercy in the NCAA.

The Shooting Stars are new to the CEBL but their roster is filled with elite talent. Their first U SPORTS draft pick was David Muenkat out of St. FX where he played and started in all sixteen games averaging 13.8 points per game to go with 9.6 rebounds and 1.3 steals and assists. To round off the draft, the Shooting Stars selected Aaron Rhooms from Toronto Met University. A teammate who attended the same program, JV Mukama was brought into the Shooting Stars after his time with the Hamilton Honey Badgers. Mukama averaged 11.4 points per game with the Honey Badgers on 41% shooting, all while grabbing 6.5 rebounds during the Honey Badgers season.

Rapper, J Cole, with experience in the Basketball Africa League has also signed with Scarborugh and will look to gain more experience as a professional alongside the likes of NBA draft pick, Jalen Harris, Tennesee product, Kyle Alexander who played two games with the Miami Heat this past year and Xavier Rathan-Mayes who has national experience with the 2013 U19 team, NCAA experience with Florida State, NBA experience playing 5 games for the Memphis Grizzles, CEBL experience with the Hamilton Honey Badgers during the 2019 season and most recently professional experience in Greece, Israel, Romania and in the NBL with the Illawarra Hawks.

This is the first of many times these two teams will faceoff. 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 .