Game Day Writeup: May 10th

EDMONTON -- Basketball fans in Edmonton have waited seven long years to embrace professional basketball again and they didn’t disappoint when the Edmonton Stingers hit the hardwood in their inaugural game.

The fans nearly blew the roof off the Edmonton Expo Centre creating an electric atmosphere. It was a historical night for not only the Stingers, but the Canadian Elite Basketball League as the Stingers came from behind to beat the Niagara River Lions 118-105 in the first-ever overtime
game in CEBL history.

“The crowd tonight was the MVP,” said Stingers general manager and head coach Barnaby Craddock.

“We don’t win this game tonight without this crowd behind us. This is a big win for our team and for basketball in Edmonton.

“If we were WWE, we couldn’t have drawn a better script to have a comeback like that on opening night.”

Stingers point guard Xavier Moon led all scorers with 36 points, while a pair of University of Alberta Golden Bear alumni made a big impact.

Mamadou Gueye had 27 points and eight rebounds, while Jordan Baker had 17 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals in the victory.

Guillaume Payen-Boucard led the River Lions with 25 points for Niagara, who suffered their first loss after beating the Saskatchewan Rattlers 99-97 on Thursday night.

It didn’t take long for Stingers fans to catch Full Moon Fever as their starting point guard quickly became a fan favourite. The Goodwater, Alabama product brings all out energy and explosiveness at both ends of the floor and it was on full display against the River Lions.

Not only was he an offensive catalyst, he played the role of floor general getting his teammates involved.

“Xavier Moon is good at basketball. That’s your headline,” said Craddock.

“He’s unbelievable. What a great game. He led us from start to finish and he had the crowd going right from the opening tip off.”

The Stingers played with speed and tenacity and it looked like the game was heading to be a blowout, but their big first half lead was cut to just six as Edmonton led 48-42 at the half after the River Lions went on a 10-0 run late in the second quarter.

After another big offensive quarter in the third, from the Stingers, Niagara kept them in their
sights and eventually took their first lead of the game with six minutes left in the game.

Shots that weren’t going down in the first half, started to come aplenty as Nem Mitrovic began heating up and scored the bulk of his 12 points in the fourth quarter.

Dorian Pinson scored 14 points for Niagara, before fouling out late in the fourth quarter, but the River Lions certainly put in a strong effort with seven players hitting double digit point totals, after playing their second game in back-to-back nights.

But, with the Stingers down by six in the final two minutes, locked in defensively and forced some turnovers of their own and Gueye hit two free throws with six seconds left to tie the game at 100-100.

In OT, the Stingers dominated on defence and earned the hard-fought win.

“It showed a lot of character from our guys. That was a big part in our process in choosing our team and our character showed in the end,” said Craddock.

“They stuck together and they didn’t quit on themselves and got it done even with just a few days of practice.”

FANS EMBRACING THE TEAM: The raucous crowd got behind the Stingers right from the opening tip and the players made sure to put a smile on their fans for their incredible support in the inaugural game.

“I hope we continue to play like that,” Moon told the Edmonton Sun.

“A lot of energy, a lot of fans out there, so we just came out and tried to put on the best show we could.”

Grandy Glaze is going to likely to become another fan favourite among Stingers fans. His engaging personality on and off the court, certainly didn’t go unnoticed by the fans in the season opener, Glaze, who scored 16 points and nine rebounds and was a force on the defensive end of the floor was appreciative of how the fans have embraced this team already.

“That was exciting, man,” Glaze told Win Column Sports Network.

“When you have this many people coming out to enjoy the show, you want to give them their money’s worth by giving them some wins so we came out and gave them just that.”