Shooting Stars pick up 93-82 win over Surge in regular season finale
Kadre Gray’s 17 points off the bench led the Scarborough Shooting Stars (12-8) to a 93-82 win over the Calgary Surge (11-9) on Sunday night.
The reigning CEBL Canadian Player of the Year put the Shooting Stars on his back once Cat Barber went down with injury in the second quarter. Gray finished with nine assists as Scarborough’s go-to floor general the rest of the way and hit four triples – none of which were more important than his last that sealed the victory.
“Kadre was fantastic,” Shooting Stars head coach Devan Blair said following the victory. “We don’t win that game without him.
Helping him was Nick Ongenda and Jaden Campbell who finished with 12 points apiece off the bench. The trio led a second unit that scored 49 points on the night (plus-33).
On the other side, the defeat did more for Calgary than just add to the loss column as it also sealed them into the third seed in the Western Conference. Losing erased any hopes the Surge had to jump the Edmonton Stingers for second place and avoid the West Play-In.
Despite the loss, Calgary had some impressive performances, namely from its starting backcourt. Stef Smith finished with a game-high 26 points to go with six assists and four rebounds, while Sean Miller-Moore added 25 points as well.
The duo accounted for over 60 per cent of the Surge’s scoring production on the night.
“The second half was definitely better than the first,” Surge head coach Tyrell Vernon said post-game. “We didn’t start with the body movement we needed in order to compete early and it was hard for us to get out of that.”
It didn’t take long for the home team to get ahead as the Shooting Stars opened the contest on a 16-3 run, immediately finding themselves up double-digits.
And that lead only got bigger towards the end of the frame, as Gray capped off the first quarter outburst with back-to-back impressive buckets – a moonshot three-pointer followed by an acrobatic layup at the buzzer that put the Shooting Stars up 31-15.
The Surge did themselves no favours either, shooting just 22 per cent from the field in the opening frame without hitting any of their nine three-point attempts.
It was looking like the second quarter would be more of the same as Scarborough extended the lead to as high as 23 points, but all that momentum halted when Barber was forced to exit the game. The guard collided with Marlon Johnson Jr. on a layup attempt mid-way through the second frame and had to be helped off the court with a back injury and did not return.
With Scarborough’s leading scorer on the year (21.2 points per game) no longer available, Calgary made the most of the opportunity by finishing the quarter on an 8-0 run, cutting the deficit down to 46-31 at halftime.
And the comeback effort continued throughout the second half, starting with eight points in the third quarter by Smith, cutting the lead to 65-55. Part of the impressive frame for the guard was a triple he nailed at the 7:31 mark which snapped a 0-for-14 start from downtown for the Surge.
Calgary finished the game shooting 5-for-30 (16 per cent) from beyond the arc.
“The effort in the second half, I was proud of it,” Vernon said on his team making things close down the stretch. “We got into a game where it could’ve got ugly for us … just back to the drawing board now.”
The Surge finally got the lead down to single digits, getting as close as five points following a pair of Smith free throws mid-way through the fourth, but Scarborough didn’t buckle under the pressure and showed poise to pull away.
Back-to-back triples from Campbell and Gray put the Shooting Stars back up double-digits, helping the defending champs take an 83-71 lead into Target Score Time.
“We don’t win this game without Jaden Campbell,” Blair said of the guard’s impact down the stretch. “Playing real minutes, he was huge for us … next man up, you never know what’s going to happen and you have to be ready when your number is called.”
From there, Scarborough displayed some impressive shot making to put an end to the contest. Starting with Aaron Best who made a three through contact to convert on a four-point play, finishing with 12 points, and then Gray drilled a deep triple with a hand in his face as the shot clock winded down to send his hometown crowd off with a victory.
The Shooting Stars were able to hold on for the win despite turning the ball over 23 times (plus-12) for 24 points off said giveaways for the Surge. What helped Scarborough stay on top even with so many turnovers were their lights out shooting from distance. The Shooting Stars finished the ball game with 14 made threes (plus-nine) on a 35 per cent clip.
Up next
With the regular season wrapped up for both squads, the next time they’ll return action will be for the postseason.
The Shooting Stars will host the Ottawa BlackJacks on Friday for the East Play-In game while the Surge will welcome the Sea Bears to Calgary for the West Play-In on the same day.
– CEBL –
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