River Lions, Bandits clash in CEBL Finals on TSN
Published
It all comes down to this as the two top teams in the Canadian Elite Basketball League will clash for the championship Sunday night in Montreal.
Both the Bandits and Rivers Lions earned the right to play for the league title with a pair of close wins in the semifinals on Friday.
Thanks to 27 points from Mitch Creek, the Bandits were able to defeat the Calgary Surge, who lost last year's final to Scarborough Shooting Stars, by a score of 89-87. In the other semifinal, Khalil Ahmad and Rivers Lions escaped with a 78-75 victory over the Montreal Alliance.
Niagara finished first in the Eastern Conference this season with a 14-6 record, defeating the Ottawa BlackJacks in the quarter-finals and the Alliance, who received an automatic bye to the game as the host team, in the semis.
Similarly, Vancouver also finished first in the Western Conference with a 14-6 record, earning a bye straight to the semifinal.
The River Lions are led by Ahmad, a 27-year-old American guard, who played his college ball at Cal State Fullerton. Ahmad is averaging 20.1 points, 5.4 assists and 3.7 rebounds over 14 games this season. He's averaging 27 points in two playoff games.
Guards Koby McEwen and Tazé Moore have led the Bandits for most of this season.
Moore, a 26-year-old American, is averaging 17.7 points, 7.2 assists and 8.2 rebounds in 18 games this season. The 27-year-old McEwen, who is from Toronto, is averaging 17.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists over 17 games.
Creek is another name to keep an eye on as he's averaged 26 points over seven games since joining the Bandits late in the season.
The Bandits hammered the River Lions, 105-83, on Canada Day in their lone head-to-head matchup of the season.
Both sides will be looking for their first CEBL title in franchise history after each losing in their previous finals appearance. The Bandits fell to the Edmonton Stingers in 2020 while the River Lions were defeated by the Stingers a year later in 2021.
The Saskatchewan Rattlers won the inaugural CEBL Finals in 2019 over the Hamilton (now Brampton) Honey Badgers.