Honey Badgers Pull away From BlackJacks
By Matthew Winick, CEBL
The Hamilton Honey Badgers (7-3) outscored the Ottawa BlackJacks (4-5) 24-13 in the fourth quarter to escape with an 87-75 Canadian Elite Basketball League win on Wednesday night in front of home fans at the FirstOntario Centre for the first time this season.
The win for Hamilton marked the end of a two-game losing skid, but it didn’t come easy. Both the Honey Badgers and BlackJacks were neck and neck through most of the contest, with the game tied after the first and second quarters. Then, after taking a one-point lead after the third, the Honey Badgers broke the doors open late to take care of business at home.
Considering the tight match saw 15 lead changes, it took a strong, focused effort from Hamilton to move closer to the second spot in the CEBL rankings. With the team looking to recoup from a couple of disappointing losses, it was a welcome sight to transition back to their early season winning ways.
“We needed a bounce back,” said Honey Badgers’ head coach Ryan Schmidt after the game, “To come out and beat a good team like this, after two straight losses, was super.”
Lindell Wigginton led the way for the Honey Badgers once again, putting up a game-high 32 points to go along with nine rebounds, four assists and four steals on hyper-efficient 10-15 shooting. The Dartmouth, Nova Scotia native is currently the clear runaway candidate for Canadian of the Year in only his first campaign in the CEBL.
“I don’t get to play in Canada much, so it would mean a lot (to win the Canadian of the Year award),” said Wigginton, “But I’m looking to win, I don’t really care about the awards.”
“I’ve known Lindell for a while, I knew his talent and what he was capable of doing,” said Schmidt, “I think the biggest thing that I’m very impressed with is he’s becoming more efficient, instead of being a volume guy… he’s still a dynamic scorer but he’s been more efficient.”
BlackJacks Cold In 4th
Despite hanging with the higher-ranked Honey Badgers for almost the entirety of the game, poor long-range shooting down the stretch killed the BlackJacks. A strong 11-26 from deep after three quarters was followed by only hitting two of eight three-pointers in the fourth quarter. With the team so dependent on outside shots due to Hamilton’s insistence on shutting down star big man Nick Ward, Ottawa couldn’t keep up when the threes stopped falling.
“I think our offensive execution in general wasn’t very good,” said BlackJacks’ head coach Charles Dubé-Brais, “Those shots falling early in the game helped us stay in it, but it’s fool’s gold at the same time because we were not getting the paint touches we were trying to get.”
Despite the loss, Ottawa got a major boost from Tyrell Green. The UNLV product dropped a season-high 22 points while adding six rebounds and hitting five three-pointers. However, excluding Green and Earl Calloway’s 12 points, no other BlackJack scored in double-figures on the night.
Next up for Ottawa is a crucial game on the road against the Niagara River Lions on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. ET. With both teams vying for the elusive fourth spot in the league standings – meaning a home playoff game, a win could keep the BlackJacks in the hunt, and a loss could all but eliminate their chances of moving up.
Hamilton’s next contest also has major playoff implications as the Fraser Valley Bandits come to town on Friday night at 7:00 p.m. ET. The two squads are just percentage points away from each other in the race for the two-seed. Whichever squad nabs that position will receive an automatic bye to the semifinals in Edmonton on August 20th, and Friday’s contest will go a long way towards deciding who earns the berth.
All CEBL games will be available for live streaming on the CEBL’s new OTT streaming service CEBL+, cbcsports.ca, the free CBC Gem streaming service, the CBC Sports App for iOS and android devices, and on Twitch.
