Game Preview - June 10: BlackJacks Look To Avoid Three-Game Losing Streak at Edmonton
The Ottawa BlackJacks of the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) take on the Edmonton Stingers tonight at 9 p.m. ET in their seventh game this season.
Ottawa enters this matchup with a less-than-ideal record of 2-4. Their last two games have both been losses to the Vancouver Bandits and Calgary Surge respectively.
Although back-to-back losses are a difficult thing to swallow, the BlackJacks should be proud of their play in both games.
Both the Bandits and the Surge are top teams in the league, holding current records of 7-1 and 6-2 respectively. The BlackJacks were within reach of beating both teams–the game was tied in the fourth quarter against Calgary, and they even held the lead during the fourth against Vancouver.
Making these games exciting is something the BlackJacks should be proud of, especially considering how long they’ve been away from home.
This game against Edmonton will be the sixth straight road game for the BlackJacks (including their matchup against Montreal which was postponed at halftime due to technical issues). The last time the team even practiced at home was June 4–nearly a week prior to tonight’s game.
Playing in an away environment for one game is hard enough–the visiting crowd can get in a team’s head, any time zone changes (which there are from Ottawa to Western Canada), an unfamiliar living accommodation like a hotel, and many more factors can heavily influence a team’s performance on the road.
Combine all of those factors into six straight games, and there’s a massive impact on players.
BlackJacks Head Coach David DeAveiro emphasized the difficulty of a long road trip for the team. “We’re really going to have to be aware of these guys and their bodies, how tired they are, and making sure that they’re getting all of the rest that they need. It’s a tough stretch.”
The time away from home wasn’t the only thing affecting the BlackJacks, though–they were also missing some important players.
The team’s starting center Isaih Moore has been day-to-day with an injury since their second game of the season. Furthermore, the team is without multiple CEBL veterans who are busy finishing up their spring seasons overseas. Recognizable league names such as Keevan Veinot, Tevin Brown, Zane Waterman, and Nikola Djogo are all signed to the roster but are yet to join the BlackJacks.
So with a long road trip on their plates and a plethora of important players missing, Ottawa should be impressed with their competitiveness against two strong teams in Vancouver and Calgary.
That competitiveness should translate well against the Stingers, who have a much less intimidating record of just 2-5.
Coming off of a 22-point loss to the Montreal Alliance, the Stingers have yet to beat a team with a record better than their own this season.
Although the Stingers are still absolutely capable of putting up a fight (they lost to the Surge by just two earlier this year), taking on a team with a worse record than their own will be a breath of fresh air for a BlackJacks team dealing with a long trip on the road and some important players missing.
The Stingers are also a great match for the BlackJacks in terms of playing style, which will be an additional help for Ottawa to gain back some winning momentum.
Edmonton is the worst defensive team in the CEBL, giving up 95.1 points per-game to their opponents. As Ottawa scores the fourth-most points per-game in the league with 88.7, signs are pointing in the direction of a high-scoring night for the BlackJacks.
A lot of that scoring for Ottawa comes from the bench. Against Calgary, three different players had nine points off of the pine including guard Rudi Williams and forwards Justin Jackson and Christian Rohlehr.
Those players led the BlackJacks’ bench unit and made a massive impact. The starters weren’t able to hold off the Surge’s scoring–each one finished the game with a +/- of -13 or lower. The bench players, meanwhile, had a lowest +/- of just -3 and a highest of +7.
Those on-off numbers are incredibly telling of just how deep and talented the BlackJacks’ team already is. And they’ll need to continue to impress, as the Stingers’ top bench scorer Aaron Rhooms is a difficult challenge to face.
Rhooms has averaged 9.0 points per-game in just 12.5 minutes per-game this season, shooting a blistering hot 55.6% from the field. His scoring leads the Stingers’ bench, so slowing him down will be a necessity for the BlackJacks’ bench if they want to maintain their impact.
Rhooms is a player for Coach DeAveiro at Toronto Metropolitan University, so DeAveiro knows what his BlackJacks team is going up against: “Aaron is a prolific scorer. He’s shown in the minutes that he’s played this year that he’s able to score at this level.”
Despite the connection, though, DeAveiro isn’t focused on his student-athlete as the main threat on this Stingers team.
“I’m happy and I’m proud of Aaron,” he remarked, “but we’re not playing Aaron. We’re playing the Edmonton Stingers, so he’s just another piece of the puzzle that we’ll have to prepare for.”
And DeAveiro may be correct. Although Rhooms is a talented scorer, Edmonton has an even more talented player in their starting lineup that could give Ottawa some trouble.
Guard Sean East II leads the Stingers in points per-game with 24.6, a number which also ranks third in the entire CEBL.
His ability to score efficiently directly impacts Edmonton’s chances at winning. In the last two games that they played against Vancouver, Edmonton lost one by 30 and one by just nine. East II scored just 16 when they lost by 30, but exploded for 27 when they lost by nine.
A statistic like that is more than enough proof for the BlackJacks that stopping East II is the BlackJacks’ most important factor in winning the game tonight.
A likely one-on-one matchup for the BlackJacks to throw at East II would be one of forwards Miryne Thomas or Deng Adel. The two have taken turns guarding the opposing team’s best players, especially when they’re tall guards–which is a mold that the 6-3 East II fits into.
Adel is more focused on a team effort to stop East II’s scoring, though.
“I think [the priority] is just team defense,” said Adel, “making sure everybody is in gaps, making sure you’re not allowing guys to be left on an island by themselves…I think we’re going to hold our own in that aspect.”
With Adel or Thomas guarding East II, and the overall team defense of the BlackJacks focusing on stopping East II’s scoring, The Stinger’s offense should be slowed to a halt. Combine that with Ottawa’s high scoring against Edmonton’s poor defense, and it creates a recipe for success for the BlackJacks tonight.
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