Flush.
The Winnipeg Sea Bears were back on the practice court on Friday, following a critical 92-77 loss to the Vancouver Bandits at home the night prior that erased their lead in the Western Conference.
There wasn’t much time to digest the defeat. With a quick turnaround on deck, the team met to watch the film, discuss shortcomings and look ahead to their next challenge.
ANDY MAHON PHOTO
Winnipeg Sea Bears forward Jeremiah Tilmon Jr. said the team needs to get physical underneath the basket rather than expect their athleticism to be enough.
“I thought our meeting this morning was really good, the conversation in the locker room, saying the right things, understanding the details,” said head coach Mike Raimbault.
“We talked about treating our last four games as a trial run for the playoffs, and if that was the case, we’d be cleaning our lockers out today. So I mean, I think the response from the group collectively was really good, understanding that we need to be a little bit better, and there’s lots of things that we can improve. And fortunately, we don’t have long to wait to get back into it.”
The club will turn its attention to an important out-of-conference matchup against the Brampton Honey Badgers (9-11) at Canada Life Centre on Saturday (2:30 p.m.) where Winnipeg will look to hold serves in the race with the Vancouver Bandit for home-court advantage throughout the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s Western Conference playoffs.
Here are three pointers to get you prepared fore Saturday’s contest in the latest edition of Beyond the Arc.
Slumping Honey Badgers
The Honey Badgers won’t enter the Sea Bears’ den riding a wave of confidence. Quite the opposite, actually.
Brampton has lost 10 of its last 12 since starting the season 7-1. The Honey Badgers remain firmly in the middle of a heated playoff race in the Eastern Conference and control their playoff destiny.
Ther’re tied with the Ottawa BlackJacks and Niagara River Lions for second in the East, while the Montreal Alliance trail closely at 8-12.
Despite a sputtering squad entering their building, Winnipeg must be sure not to overlook this club, which has shown how dangerous it can be. The Sea Bears fell 96-92 in Brampton, Ont., in May.
“I definitely think they’re hungry. I definitely feel like they got a point to prove right now, but I feel like we also do too,” said Jeremiah Tilmon Jr. “We just lost at home, and we lost our No. 1 spot (in the Western Conference). I mean, we got a chip on our shoulder too, man. We didn’t get the outcome that we wanted last game, and we felt like that was gonna be a statement game for us as far as the playoffs and all that stuff. We’re gonna expect their best tomorrow.”
Dangerous backcourt
Bandits guard Jarkel Joiner put forth a tremendous 24-point performance on Thursday, and now the Sea Bears will face another dangerous back court that includes Sean East II, Cameron Tyson and the recently signed Tevian Jones.
The Sea Bears are familiar with all three. East II was an MVP finalist last summer and is enjoying another strong — albeit less efficient — campaign, averaging 22.9 points, 7.3 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game.
Tyson, a CEBL rookie, introduced himself to the Sea Bears in the previous meeting, pouring in 23 points, including seven three-pointers.
Jones started 14 games for the Sea Bears, averaging 16.6 points, last season before requesting his release and joining Saskatoon’s organization.
“They’re ultra aggressive, so you have to kind of be wary of them,” said Sea Bears guard Jelani Watson-Gayle. “They also will shoot a lot of shots… I won’t say any shot, but when they have a longer leash from their coach and they can they can shoot a lot more shots and stuff like that, they can be dangerous because once they see one go in, it can be a long day.”
East II, Tyson and Jones play vastly different styles, but can all be difficult to defend. They will be a key for Winnipeg on the defensive end in this one.
Rebounding remains critical
There’s a consistent theme across nearly every loss for Sea Bears this season: they were out-hustled on the glass.
Rebounding has been a struggle for Winnipeg this season. It’s one of the few cracks in their armour that have been exploited.
The Sea Bears rank in the middle of the pack in rebounds per game (36.7) but are coming off a matchup against Vancouver in which they were dominated, being out-rebounded 50-28 and outscored 62-34 inside the paint.
“We talk about it all the time. We don’t trust each other to help each other,” said Tilmon Jr.
“A lot of it be us watching instead of hitting the bodies… expecting our athleticism to work. It don’t always work like that. I mean, basketball, everybody pros out here,” he added. “I do it myself. When I watch film… I’m just standing there watching them rebound instead of just going down there and getting in the fight too. I have my mistakes as well, but we do a lot of watching on rebounding and not helping each other. Like, it’s bad.”
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The Honey Badgers rank third with 37.8 rebounds per contest and have been particularly tenacious on the offensive glass, hauling down a second-best 12 offensive rebounds per game, which has led to many second-chance opportunities.
The Sea Bears have harped on the rebounding department all season, but now they need their talk to come to fruition.
“I think the message for us really more is about consistency, continuing to stay in motion. We know that as the games get bigger and the challenge gets greater, you’re going to get rewarded less for some of those efforts, and for us, we got to continue to make multiple efforts, and might not be as fruitful as some previous games where you get after it and all of a sudden you’re scoring at the other end,” said Raimbault.
“You have to be able to sustain that concentration and that effort, regardless of what we’re getting in return. If you want to win a post-season game, you’ve got to be able to weather the storm a little bit better with some scoring droughts, and our activity can’t drop.”
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Josh Frey-Sam reports on sports and business at the Free Press. Josh got his start at the paper in 2022, just weeks after graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College. He reports primarily on amateur teams and athletes in sports. Read more about Josh.
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