Jun 25, 2023
Streaking Shooting Stars visit Rattlers to open west trip
The Scarborough Shooting Stars will look for their fifth consecutive win in the opener of a three-game western conference road trip against the Saskatchewan Rattlers at the SaskTel Centre on Sunday.
Media Release
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The Scarborough Shooting Stars will look for their fifth consecutive win in the opener of a three-game western conference road trip against the Saskatchewan Rattlers at the SaskTel Centre on Sunday.
The game will be available for streaming LIVE on TSN+ beginning at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT.
The Shooting Stars are coming into this game fresh off sweeping their three-game home stand with wins against Brampton, Ottawa, and Edmonton—vaulting them into sole possession of first place in the eastern conference.
Scarborough’s win streak began against Montréal on June 11.
Cat Barber was a man on a mission in Scarborough’s last game against Edmonton on Thursday night. The Hampton, Virginia product, who is in the top seven in the CEBL in points (23.6), assists (4.9), and steals (2.0) per game, had a game-high 34 points on 56 per cent shooting. 21 of those points came in the first half.
“When he’s aggressive, our team is much better,” Scarborough head coach Chris Exilus said after his team’s game on Thursday. “We want to make sure he still does that, is aggressive and continues to push the pace.”
Forward Kyree Walker has also been a standout for the Shooting Stars in their win streak. Since joining Scarborough on June 18, Walker has averaged 15.3 points per game in roughly 23 minutes of action, ranking him third on the team.
The Shooting Stars will have their hands full with Saskatchewan’s Justin Wright-Foreman, who’s 28.8 points per game is leading the CEBL.
Wright-Foreman racked up 24 points, 6 boards, and 6 assists in Saskatchewan’s last game—a 86-78 loss to the Winnipeg Sea Bears on Friday. Although the loss marked the Rattlers’ fifth consecutive defeat, they remain only 2.5 games back of the second-place Edmonton Stingers in a tight western conference.
Reserve Michael Nuga, who is averaging over 13 points per game in a bench role, had another solid outing against Winnipeg—chipping in with 11 points in the loss.
As a team, the Rattlers nailed 10 three pointers in their last game and will need the long ball to continue to drop in order to stop Scarborough’s win streak at four.
Saskatchewan is a high-volume shooting team from long range. Through their first eight games, Saskatchewan is averaging the most three point attempts per game in the league. They are also converting the most threes out of any CEBL team, with 11 per contest.
On the flip side, Scarborough has been proficient from mid-range. The Shooting Stars, who sit third in the league in points per game (87.8), are sinking a CEBL-best 25 shots from two-point range in each match.
In their last meeting, on June 4, Saskatchewan used a game-high 36 points from Wright-Foreman and 13 triples to defeat Scarborough 96-84 at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre. Barber countered with 27 points on 62 per cent shooting.
Following today’s matchup, Saskatchewan will travel to Montréal for a date with the Alliance on June 28. Scarborough will continue their road trip in Calgary for the first of back-to-back games against the Surge and Edmonton Stingers on June 28 and 29.