Sea Bears Return Home for Father’s Day Showdown with Edmonton Stingers

By Josh Kozelj

The Winnipeg Sea Bears (3-4) will look to snap a three-game losing streak in a sold-out Father’s Day matinee against the Edmonton Stingers (5-2) at 2 p.m. CT at Canada Life Centre.

Live coverage is available on CEBL+ powered by BetVictor, TSN+ and on the Sea Bears mobile app. It will also be televised on NLSE in the United States.

The game is a rematch of the 2023 Western Conference Play-In, which saw the Stingers end the Sea Bears’ inaugural campaign with a six-point road victory last August. In total, Edmonton took three of four meetings from Winnipeg last season.

However, the Sea Bears recently reinforced their roster with the addition of Justin Wright-Foreman, who scored a team-high 29 points on 52 per cent shooting from the field in a losing effort to the Vancouver Bandits on Thursday night.

Wright-Foreman and Teddy Allen, the reigning league MVP who sits second in the CEBL with 26.6 points per game, combined for 53 of Winnipeg’s 91 points against Vancouver. But the team struggled to get the ball moving in the loss, combining for 11 total assists — an aspect that head coach Mike Taylor is looking to improve heading into this afternoon.

“Teddy and Justin are going to score, but it’s about the way we’re playing together,” Taylor said after Thursday’s game. “For us, it’s about teamwork. We need to try and integrate our new guys.” 

One of those newcomers, Alex Campbell, the Vancouver Bandits’ all-time leading scorer, had his most productive performance as a Sea Bear on Thursday. The Brampton, Ont. product scored a season-high 15 points and hauled in seven rebounds. But aside from Campbell, Allen and Wright-Foreman, the rest of the Sea Bears roster mustered up only 23 combined points.

Although some familiar leaders — Brody Clarke and Nick Hornsby — have returned to Edmonton, it’s been a couple of fresh faces that have carried the load offensively. Davion Warren, who has recently completed two seasons in the NBA G League, leads the Stingers with 14.4 points per game.

Edmonton-born Ben Krikke has also found opportunities in few minutes, registering 12.9 points in just under 19 minutes per game, while Clarke and Hornsby are averaging 10.6 and 10.0 points per game respectively.

The Stingers snapped a two-game slide in their last time out, a 91-84 victory over the Calgary Surge on Friday night, on the back of a couple of strong bench performances.

Michael Nuga, who averaged a hair over 13 points per game in a reserve role with the Saskatchewan Rattlers last season, led all scorers with 18 points in 17 minutes off the bench. Krikke matched Nuga’s 18 points, converting eight of nine shots from the field and knocking down the clinching bucket in Target Score Time. All in all, the Stingers bench outscored the Calgary bench 41-19.

Jacob Evans III also recorded a double-double with 15 points and 11 boards.

The Stingers have shown a stout defence to this point, giving up the third fewest points per game in the league (85). Much of that effectiveness has come from generating turnovers and transition scoring opportunities.

Edmonton has four players — Warren, Evans III, Hornsby and Adika Peter-McNeilly — who average more than one steal per game. Their active hands will present a challenge to Teddy Allen, who commits the most turnovers in the CEBL (4.4 per game).

Wright-Foreman scored 55 points across two games against Edmonton last year as a member of the Saskatchewan Rattlers, including a 37-point outburst in a win last July.

After today’s game, Edmonton will return home for a date with the Ottawa BlackJacks on Thursday night. Winnipeg, meanwhile, is slated for a rematch with the Vancouver Bandits on their home court this Wednesday. For tickets, visit seabears.ca/tickets.