Sea Bears fend off Stingers’ comeback attempt for 4th straight win
Winnipeg, seemingly, doesn’t like to make things easy on itself.
The Sea Bears blew a 16-point lead and trailed heading into Target Score Time, but came back to earn their first-ever home victory over the Edmonton Stingers in a 102-101 thriller at Canada Life Centre on Wednesday.
It marks the third come-from-behind victory of a four-game winning streak for Winnipeg, which is now 7-5 and into third place alone in the West following Calgary’s loss to Brampton earlier Wednesday.
“We’ve had three outstanding comebacks. We played really well for a majority of the game tonight, but give Edmonton credit. You could see why they’re really good on the road and successful. They play really well together,” Sea Bears head coach Mike Taylor said. “But again, our guys stepped up and found a way to win. And it doesn’t have to be pretty. They just find a way to win and I’m really proud of the team.”
After controlling play for about 35 minutes, Winnipeg held a 90-83 lead as Target Score Time came within sight. But a sudden 10-0 Stingers run turned the tables on the game and put the Sea Bears on the ropes.
Winnipeg hung tough after the clock turned off, yet Edmonton still gave itself two chances to put the game away with a single point after taking a 101-99 lead.
First, the Stingers’ Trey McGowens stepped out of bounds, turning the ball over. Edmonton then intentionally fouled, ensuring the Sea Bears could not win with a three-pointer.
But Edmonton’s strategy backfired when Justin Wright-Foreman made both attempts before the Stingers turned the ball over a second time, this time on an errant pass by McGowens.
Wright-Foreman drew a shooting foul on the Sea Bears’ ensuing possession, made the first free throw, and the Sea Bears escaped with the dramatic win.
“We just had mental lapses. I think that’s our Achilles heel. Sometimes on the court … we don’t think, which is sometimes a good and a bad thing and we put ourselves in tough spots sometimes,” Wright-Foreman said.
“But as you can see during [Target Score Time], all of that goes out the window. And that’s when the real not thinking happens and we just play.”
Winnipeg’s victory, in some ways, was an encapsulation of a season which has seen the team release reigning MVP Teddy Allen and more recently ex-NBAer Byron Mullens, a marquee off-season signing.
After their 3-1 start to the campaign, the Sea Bears suffered a four-game losing streak – only to respond now with four straight victories.
“We made a lot of progress in the last four games. We’re kind of using the adversity that we’ve been through to redefine ourselves and it’s really about team,” Taylor said.
“There was a lot of tough times and we will not defend it. We had a lot of in-fighting for that four-game stretch, but we made some strong organizational decisions. We’ve got a team that’s really connected and together now and I just couldn’t be prouder of us.”
Wright-Foreman led the Sea Bears with 34 points to go with five assists and five rebounds.
Centre Noah Starkey, who won the G League championship as a member of the Oklahoma City Blue, debuted for Sea Bears and played 16 minutes off the bench, scoring one point and adding three rebounds.
Winnipeg’s Alex Campbell connected on four triples, surpassing 200 for his career including playoffs. The Brampton, Ont., native finished with 12 points, leaving him four shy of 1,000 for his regular-season career.
“We come in every day and we put the work in and that’s just one example,” Wright-Foreman said. “So we just come in, be tough every day and that’s who we are.”
Edmonton, meanwhile, falls to 9-4 and out of a first-place tie with Vancouver in the stacked Western Conference.
McGowens paced the Stingers with 27 points and six rebounds while chipping in four assists. But after setting the CEBL record with 10 three-pointers in his last game, Stingers guard Elijah Miller failed to make a single one as he was held to just two points.
“We dug ourselves in a hole. We fought back hard though and we really came together, and then it just came down to those last two turnovers at the end. Be decisive, gotta be aggressive. We felt like we kinda over passed at the end. But we learn from it. We got a little room, so we’ll be better,” McGowens said.
The loss marked Edmonton’s first road defeat of the season. Stingers head coach Jordan Baker said that his team ultimately put itself into too big a rut over the first three quarters of the game.
“Credit to our guys for showing some character and no quit, but we gotta be tighter in the first 30 minutes to make it so we don’t have to battle back so much,” he said.
The first half featured plenty of offence as the Sea Bears made 50 per cent of their shots, including an eight-for-17 mark from deep that was punctuated by Wright-Foreman’s second-quarter buzzer-beater to put Winnipeg up nine at halftime.
Winnipeg increased its field-goal percentage in the second half, but was outdone by Edmonton’s 73 per cent mark from within the arc. However, the fast-paced game also meant plenty of turnovers, with Winnipeg coughing the ball up 17 times and Edmonton 16 times.
In the end, it was those empty possessions that cost Edmonton.
And Winnipeg, like it has so often recently, battled adversity of its own to leave with a win.
What’s next?
Both teams are back in action on Friday as Edmonton begins a three-game homestand when it hosts Vancouver while Winnipeg pays a visit to Montreal.
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A league created by Canadians for Canadians with a mission to develop Canadian players, coaches, sports executives, and referees, the CEBL boasts the highest percentage of Canadian players of any pro league in the country with 75% of its rosters being Canadian and a record 10 players with NBA experience in 2024. Players also bring experience from the NBA G League, top international pro leagues, the Canadian National team program, NCAA programs, as well as U SPORTS and CCAA. Fourteen players have signed NBA contracts following a CEBL season, and numerous CEBL players attend NBA G League training camps every year. The CEBL season runs from May through August with games broadcast live on CEBL+ powered by BetVictor, TSN, TSN+, RDS, Game+, Next Level Sports & Entertainment and Courtside1891. More information about the CEBL is available at CEBL.ca and @cebleague on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook & YouTube.
