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Winnipeg Sea Bears Visit Montréal Alliance in Battle of Star Guards

Zulfi Sheikh • July 3, 2023

The Winnipeg Sea Bears (-125) continue their three-game road trip as they head to the Verdun Auditorium to take on the Montréal Alliance (-110) on Monday night at 7:30 pm ET.

It will be available for streaming live on TSN+, CEBL+ powered by BetVictor, and on the CEBL Mobile app available on iOS and Android devices.

As the two newest CEBL franchises – Montréal (5-7) joining through expansion last year and Winnipeg (8-4) joining the same way this year – this will be the first contest between the two teams in their franchises’ history, and the first of two regular season games between the squads this year.

Keep an eye on a potential head-to-head matchup between the Sea Bears’ Teddy Allen and the Alliance’s Ahmed Hill, who fans can expect to see a lot of as both average in the top-10 for minutes. The guards are also second and fourth on the league’s scoring ladder, Allen averaging 26.5 points per game with Hill putting up 19.5 points of his own, and the duo also being elite from distance as two of only five players to drill over 30 shots from beyond the arch this season.

Winnipeg enters the contest on short rest having played just last night, in a contest where their three-game win streak was snapped via a 99-86 loss to the Ottawa BlackJacks. The Sea Bears never led once in that game after the BlackJacks jumped out to an early lead by knocking down 8 threes in the first quarter.

It might’ve been easy to explain the loss as just a hot shooting night by Ottawa, but Winnipeg’s head coach Mike Taylor thinks their defensive effort on the road played just as much of a role.

“The story starts and stops with our defence,” Taylor said following their loss to the BlackJacks. “We didn’t stop these guys all game…if we want to win on the road we have to defend.”

His team is now 3-3 on the road this season versus 5-1 at home, and like their latest loss, a part of that disparity has been their play on defence and inconsistency away from Canada Life Centre. In all three of their road defeats the Sea Bears have lost the turnover battle and allowed their opponents to shoot a combined average of 46 per cent from the field. In contrast, in their road wins the team has forced more takeaways on average – winning the turnover battle – while limiting opponents to a lower field goal percentage.

Despite their struggles away from home, what has remained a constant for the squad has been their elite play around the glass. The team is still second in the league, averaging 43.2 rebounds a game, and a CEBL-best 14.8 of those boards coming on the offensive end. Keep an eye on Chad Posthumus to make an impact securing the ball, fresh off a 16-point, 10-rebound, double-double performance in that loss to Ottawa.

The forward could be in for a big night as he’ll take his league-best 4.8 offensive rebounds a night against a team in the Alliance that typically struggles securing the defensive glass, ranking second-last in the league (26.9 DRPG).

However, Montréal do enter the contest with an elite rebounding big man of their own. In their latest game Treveon Graham set a CEBL record with 20 rebounds while nearly notching the first 20-20 outing in league history had he scored just one more point. The forward currently sits at third in the league for total rebounds, averaging 10.3 a contest.

Despite Graham’s efforts the team ultimately lost 88-79 to the Saskatchewan Rattlers, snapping their two-game winning streak in the process. The Alliance finished the night ahead in most major statistical categories but their inability to contain star guard Justin Wright-Foreman eventually proved too much to overcome.

He finished with 33 points – shooting over 50 per cent from the field and distance – knocking down five triples along the way. Allen for Winnipeg plays a similar style to Wright-Foreman, so fans of Montréal should keep an eye on how the team tries to contain the guard throughout the night, as he’s coming off an impressive performance of his own with a 26-point, 10-rebound, double-double.

As mentioned before, Hill will be the likely candidate to match Allen’s production, as the Georgia native has been vital for the Alliance since the loss of Blake Francis on June 13 due to injury. The lead guard’s been out for six games in that span, Hill has been the team’s leading scorer, averaging 24 points a game.

With the news that Francis has now been released by Montréal, the squad will hope Hill can continue his heightened level of play as they look to fight their way back into a playoff spot in the East. Luckily for Alliance fans, he may have some reinforcements joining him as the team recently signed guard Negus Webster-Chan following the release of Francis.

The Canadian joins an Alliance squad that could not only use his scoring ability, but also his knack for winning. The Scarborough, Ontario, native joins the team having won an NBA G League title in 2017 with the Raptors 905, and in his first of two CEBL seasons, he won a title with the 2019 Rattlers.

He most recently played in Taiwan with Kaohsiung, averaging 9.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.

A win for Winnipeg would help extend their lead over the rest of the Western Conference, while a victory for Montréal puts them right back into the mix in the East. The Alliance winning would vault them from last to third place in the conference and just two games behind top-seeded Ottawa.

All games will also be streamed live internationally on the CEBL’s OTT platform, CEBL+ powered by BetVictor, and on the CEBL Mobile app for iOS and Android devices. Full list of betting props available on BetVictor. Preview written by Zulfi Sheikh (@zulfi_sheikh).

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.

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