STINGERS SURVIVE FEROCIOUS BATTLE
Upstart Blackjacks provide tough test for CEBL champions in semifinal contest
There's no such thing as an easy night when your life is on the line.
So even though it was a mismatch on paper, a 13-1 defending champion against a 4-10 opponent that finished second last in the league, the Edmonton Stingers knew they were one lull away from a catastrophic end to their title defence.
Well, they know it now, anyway. In a one-game semifinal showdown against the Ottawa Blackjacks, the only team to beat them this year, the Stingers survived a harrowing final few minutes to fight back for a 94-87 victory at the Edmonton Expo Centre
Despite the Blackjacks' best efforts to spoil Edmonton's party before it could even get started — and they definitely tightened the screws in the second half — the Stingers advanced to take on the Niagara River Lions in Sunday afternoon's championship final.
Edmonton led by as many as 10 in the first half, but Ottawa put up a ferocious battle under the rim, out-rebounding Edmonton 23-15, and were only trailing 51-45 at halftime.
Things only grew more tense from there. With Jordan Baker on the bench with four fouls, Ottawa took a 68-65 lead into the fourth quarter. They were out-rebounding Edmonton 33-21.
At this point, you know the script: The heavy favourite starts to feel the kind of pressure it hasn't felt all season and the underdog starts feeding on that dangerous mix of adrenalin and belief.
With six minutes left, it was 76-75 Ottawa.
Five minutes left, 78-77 Ottawa.
Four minutes left, 80-79 Ottawa.
The CEBL has adopted the Elam Ending, whereby the winning score is set at nine points more than whatever the leading team has at the first stoppage of play with under four minutes left the game. The first team to that number wins.
The stoppage came with Edmonton up 85-84. First team to 94 wins.
From there, Edmonton showed its championship pedigree and went on a 9-3 run to close the door for good.
In the early semifinal, the River Lions, who have been bathing in adversity for a couple of weeks now, fought through a little more of it themselves.
As if not getting their full team together until the morning of the game wasn't enough, they emerged from their coronavirus quarantine just in time to run into a relentless buzzsaw.
Despite leading the Fraser Valley Bandits for most of the night, occasionally looking like they might be able to put them away early, the second place team in the league needed a long three-pointer on the final shot of the game to escape with an 84-82 triumph.
“I'm so proud,” said Niagara coach Victor Raso. “This team has dealt with adversity all year, but nothing to this extent. I didn't see three of our players for the first time until this morning, and three others until yesterday.
“That's crazy. For these guys to be engaged on Zoom sessions and for four guys to play over 30 minutes, that's nuts. What they did today, I will always remember that.”
It was a heart-breaking finish for Fraser Valley. After spending most of the night trying to dig out from an early 10-point deficit, they had a lead down the stretch and a possession to win the game.
“That's a possession we would like to have back,” said Fraser Valley coach Tanner Massey. “We were a little disjointed, but I was still confident as we were attacking the basket in what we could get. There were some things that didn't go our way tonight, but that's the way it goes sometimes. We gave ourselves a chance at the end.
“It shows the resiliency that our guys have displayed all year with everything that's gone on. For them to come back and push this thing to the limit like they did really shows a lot about their character.”
The Bandits ran into a pair of obstacles to start the game — their own tournament jitters and the River Lions' pressure defence — and came up empty on six of their first seven trips down the floor. They were on the wrong side of a 12-2 score before the game was four minutes old and had to spend the rest of the first half playing catch up.
But Fraser Valley's urgency picked up and their hands thawed out in the second quarter, and by the five-minute mark of the third quarter they were up 49-48.
From that point on it was anyone's game.
Elam Time kicked in with Niagara up 75-71, so the target score was 84 — Niagara needed nine, Fraser Valley needed 13.
Fraser Valley scored four quick points to make it 75-75 and an even-money race to nine. And when Fraser Valley went up
82-81 in Elam Time, Niagara's tournament life flashed before its eyes.
“That's a tough, tough basketball team and they don't quit,” said Raso. “We got ahead early and they fought back. There was just a feeling that we weren't going to be able to pull away and we would have to win at the end. Luckily enough we did.”