Surge host Sea Bears for Western Conference Play-In game
Published
The CEBL playoffs have arrived and the Western Conference side off things starts with a matchup between the No. 3 seed Calgary Surge (11-9) and No. 4 seed Winnipeg Sea Bears (9-11) in a Play-In game on Friday.
The path to Championship Weekend out west will go through Alberta this year with the Surge hosting the Play-In game and the winner getting to take on the Edmonton Stingers just two days later in the West Semifinal.
2024 season series
To say these squads are familiar with each is an understatement given the fact they went through a home-and-home set less than a week ago. And if those two games are any indication, fans should expect a tightly contested affair on Friday.
Both games ended within a single-digit margin as the Sea Bears and Surge split that set – the home team winning each time. In fact, the road team has yet to ever win a game between the two squads as Winnipeg is 0-4 at the WinSport Event Centre all-time while Calgary is 0-2 at the Canada Life Centre. To make matters more challenging for the visiting Sea Bears on Friday, they were 1-9 on the road this year.
Going back to last week’s home-and-home set, Winnipeg took the first game (111-104), and Calgary responded two days later with its own victory (87-83).
The Sea Bears win came down to a strong fourth quarter finish in which they outscored the Surge 29-17. Winnipeg trailed by five points entering the final frame but caught fire from beyond the arc, hitting six threes to spark a 10-2 run that had them up six headed in Target Score Time where they took care of the rest.
A major catalyst through that fourth quarter stretch was Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson who scored 10 of his team-high 18 points in the final frame, including a game-winning free throw.
Meanwhile, the Surge’s win came courtesy of a herculean effort on the glass. In a game Calgary was handily outshot from the field, distance and charity stripe they grabbed 55 rebounds (plus-19) – with a 25-8 edge on o-boards – to more than make up that disparity.
The Surge’s rebounding efforts, led by Jordy Tshimanga who had 13 on the night, earned them 17 second chance points (plus-13) on 13 extra shot attempts, which were all important in the four-point victory.
Calgary also picked up an emphatic 110-78 victory in the first of their three games between the two teams this season but take that outcome with a grain of salt as it was nearly two months ago when both teams looked quite different.
Key matchup
The Western Conference has built a reputation for housing some of the league’s most dynamic guards and Friday will be no different when Winnipeg’s Justin Wright-Foreman and Calgary’s Sean Miller-Moore go head-to-head.
Wright-Foreman, a 2024 MVP finalist, will be making his much-anticipated CEBL playoff debut and will likely be heavily relied upon against Calgary’s stout defence.
The good news for Winnipeg fans is that the import is entering the matchup after arguably his best performance of the season. In an 89-86 regular season-ending loss to Edmonton, Wright-Foreman scored 40 points, two-shy of the franchise record, on 55 and 56 per cent shooting from the field and distance.
And when he’s not leading the league in scoring for a second consecutive season, the guard is also an impactful floor general. He’s the only player to rank inside the top five in points (26.3 points per game) and assists per game (6.2) this year, and earlier this season, Wright-Foreman set a CEBL single-game record for dimes with 16 in a game against the Niagara River Lions.
On the other side, Miller-Moore is leading the Surge back to the post-season after taking them all the way to the Championship Final last season.
The 2023 CEBL All-Canadian has remained one of the league’s most consistent all-around performers, averaging 16.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists on 30.5 minutes per game. And Miller-Moore appears to enjoy playing against the Sea Bears as his scoring average bumps up to 20.7 points per game through three games this season.
Calgary will rely on the Brampton, Ont. native’s level-headedness to deal with the scoring prowess of Wright-Foreman while pouring it in himself on the other end. The Surge are 2-0 against the Sea Bears this season when he’s scored over 20 points.
Wright-Foreman and Miller-Moore’s impact as scorers in this matchup cannot be overstated. Through three games, whichever of the two has led the game in scoring, his team has won the contest.