Stingers Take On BlackJacks At Home

The Edmonton Stingers will look to avoid their second three-game losing streak of the season in a matchup with the Ottawa BlackJacks at 7:00 p.m. MT at Edmonton Expo Centre on Tuesday. 

The Stingers enter the game at 7-7 on the season, following losses to the first-place Hamilton Honey Badgers and the second-place Niagara River Lions. The River Lions routed the Stingers 97-68 last Wednesday in Edmonton’s biggest loss in the CEBL’s Elam era. The Stingers bounced back and competed with the Honey Badgers on Saturday and carried a four point lead into the Elam ending, but the Honey Badgers stormed back to win the game 87-81. 

In their back-to-back losses, Edmonton has suffered from careless turnovers and poor shooting from three and the free throw line. The Stingers finished a combined 22-36 from the charity stripe at 61 per cent, and 22 per cent from three at a combined 10-45. They also turned the ball over 22 times against Niagara and 18 times against Hamilton. They fell behind their average of 21 assists per game on both occasions and their leading scorer Brody Clarke went just 1-7 from the field during the losing streak after scoring 25 points or more in their previous two outings. 

Clarke still leads the team in scoring at 13.6 points per game on 49 per cent shooting from the floor. His fellow former Alberta Golden Bear, Jordan Baker, continues to put his well-rounded game on display. Baker is the lone player in the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) to currently average a double-double, with 11.8 points per game, a league-best 10.3 rebounds per game, 4.8 assists per game and 1.6 steals per game. After missing the opening five games, Marlon Johnson Jr. has fit back in with the Stingers. He’s averaging 10.3 points per game, 6.1 rebounds per game and 1.3 steals per game in a starting role while Aher Uguak is averaging 10.2 points off the bench. 

Meanwhile, the Ottawa BlackJacks enter Tuesday’s contest at 5-8 in eighth place in the CEBL standings. However, the BlackJacks have the comfort of a guaranteed spot in the league’s semi-final because of hosting the playoffs at TD Place in the nation’s capital next month. Ottawa arrives in Edmonton on a two-game winning streak with wins in four of their last five games. The BlackJacks’ back-to-back home victories have both been blowouts, with a record-tying 51-point rout of the Saskatchewan Rattlers last Wednesday and an aptly-numbered 21-point defeat of the Fraser Valley Bandits on Friday. Ottawa’s only loss over the past five games has come against the first-place Hamilton Honey Badgers, with an historic comeback win over the Shooting Stars in Scarborough and a home win over Edmonton rounding out the streak.

The BlackJacks have seen the return of Kadre Gray to the squad after starting the season in Langley with the Fraser Valley Bandits. However, Ottawa will likely continue to rely on their dynamic duo of Walt Lemon Jr. and Deng Adel against Edmonton and during the final stretch of the season. Lemon Jr. leads the BlackJacks in three statistical categories, with 18.2 points per game, 5.9 assists per game and 1.7 steals per game. Deng Adel has also showed off his complete game this season, averaging 17.7 points per game, 5.5 rebounds per game, and 4.8 assists per game for the BlackJacks. Adel has been rolling in the deep this season as well, shooting a league-best 47.3 per cent from long range. 

In their previous meeting this season at TD Place, the BlackJacks defeated the two-time defending champions 92-84. Walt Lemon Jr. was spectacular in the win, netting 23 points and dishing 9 assists to lead Ottawa to victory. The BlackJacks had five players reach double figures while Edmonton had six reach double-figures in a losing effort. Marlon Johnson Jr. and Demarco Dickerson led the way for the Stingers with 14 points each. 

The game will stream on CEBL+ live internationally and in Canada at cbcsports.ca, the CBC Sports app for iOS

and Android devices and the free CBC Gem streaming service. Games are also available on the CEBL’s official app, CEBL Mobile, available on iOS and Android devices.

Edmonton Stingers tickets are available at https://www.thestingers.ca/tickets while Ottawa BlackJacks tickets are available at https://www.theblackjacks.ca/tickets.   

A league created by Canadians for Canadians, the CEBL has the highest percentage of Canadian players of any professional league in the country, with 71 percent of its current rosters being Canadians. Players bring experience from the NBA, NBA G League, top international leagues, the Canadian National team program, and top NCAA programs as well as U SPORTS. The only First Division Professional League Partner of Canada Basketball, the CEBL season runs from May through August. Head to CEBL.ca for more information or follow us (@cebleague) on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook & YouTube.