Shooting Stars host BlackJacks in high-octane Eastern Conference Play-In
Published
The defending CEBL champion Scarborough Shooting Stars (12-8) will begin their quest to repeat as they open the post-season with an Eastern Conference Play-in matchup against the Ottawa BlackJacks (9-11).
Scarborough is looking to become just the second team to ever repeat as CEBL champions. The Edmonton Stingers are the only team to accomplish this feat, doing so in 2020 and 2021.
Led by the dynamic duo of Cat Barber and Donovan Williams, the Shooting Stars feature a lethal offensive attack, centered around hunting three-point shots.
The shot selection can sometimes look suspect in the name of getting threes up, but when they’re falling, few if any team in the CEBL can match the shear firepower that the Shooting Stars can output from distance.
Defensively, Scarborough is middle of the road, but does feature exceptional rim protection with names like Kalif Young, Hason Ward and Nick Ongenda patrolling the paint.
Heading into Friday’s matchup, the Shooting Stars look to be the superior team on paper.
However, if actual games went just according to how the stat sheet predicted they would go, then there’s a good chance that the Ottawa BlackJacks wouldn’t be competing in Friday’s Eastern Conference Play-In.
Starting the season 1-6, Ottawa was behind the eight ball early on but for good reason. Missing key players both due to injury and other international commitments, it felt like all Ottawa could do was wait for the cavalry to arrive. In the meantime, however, all they were doing was painfully losing games and watching the Brampton Honey Badgers slip further and further away.
The post-season wasn’t looking like a very real possibility.
Those reinforcements did eventually arrive, and while waiting for them, BlackJacks coach James Derouin found a style of play that dramatically turned his team around over the last third of the season.
The BlackJacks want to play fast, force turnovers and get threes up in bunches.
A high-risk, high-reward playstyle, Ottawa has been banking on the individual skills of players like Deng Adel, Isaih Moore, Tyrrel Tate, Keevan Veinot, Tevin Brown and CEBL Defensive
Player of the Year award nominee Lloyd Pandi to, make plays and, essentially, run opposing teams out of the gym.
It’s been a recipe for success that’s, really, only been perfected over Ottawa’s last four games and, as a result, the BlackJacks are entering Friday probably playing the best basketball they have all season long, and it looks like the secret’s out, with Scarborough only a 2.5-point favourite on BetVictor.
Ultimately, even though the Shooting Stars look like the better team from a statistical standpoint, the BlackJacks’ helter-skelter style of play could prove to be disruptive enough to give Scarborough some real issues.
Key matchup
As talented as Williams is for Scarborough, the engine of the Shooting Stars is Barber, meaning Pandi is likely getting that assignment. A matchup against one of the CEBL’s premier guards against, possibly, the best perimeter defender in the entire league – who set a new CEBL record with 44 steals during the regular season – in a playoff game should make for some destination viewing.
Milestone watch
● Scarborough’s Kadre Gray, of Toronto, Ont., needs 12 points to reach 900 for his career, regular season and playoffs.
● Ottawa’s Deng Adel needs two rebounds to reach 250 for his career, regular season and playoffs.
● Ottawa’s Deng Adel needs nine assists to reach 200 for his career, regular season and playoffs.
● Ottawa’s Lloyd Pandi, of Ottawa, Ont., needs six steals to reach 100 for his career, regular season and playoffs.
2024 season series
In three meetings with one another during the regular season, Scarborough won twice, including recently on July 18, a 92-79 rout in Ottawa.