The Winnipeg Sea Bears had forged an identity around overcoming large deficits and finding gritty victories this season.
The pro hoops club came oh so close to pulling it off again Friday night in Calgary but fell just short in completing another comeback, ending their tumultuous 2024 season in the Canadian Elite Basketball League.
The Sea Bears fell 84-82 in a nail-bitter to the Calgary Surge in the Western Conference play-in game at WinSport Event Centre.
Winnipeg Sea Bears photo Justin Wright-Foreman scores a goal in Friday’s match against Calgary’s Surge.
Surge guard Corey Davis Jr. sunk a game-winning baseline jumper in Target Score Time after both clubs had multiple opportunities to end the game earlier.
Calgary advanced to the Western Conference semi-final and will duel their provincial rival Edmonton Stingers on Sunday for the right to play on championship weekend.
Winnipeg is now 0-2 in the playoffs since joining the CEBL.
“It’s tough to lose like this,” said Sea Bears head coach Mike Taylor.
“It was a great game. Really proud of our team — the heart, the effort. We were a little bit short-handed and banged up. Gotta give Calgary credit, they’ve done a great job on the offensive boards against us all year, they got several extra possessions, but our team showed heart, showed fight and really came back and, again, we gave ourselves several chances to win.”
Expectations were high for the Sea Bears entering the year with the return of MVP Teddy Allen and the additions of former NBA player Byron Mullens and G League standout Darius Days. The team looked to have fallen flat on its face when none of the three players were with the team by the mid-point of the season, as the Sea Bears hovered near the bottom of the standings and were often getting in their own way.
Taylor re-tooled on the fly by adding Wright-Foreman and Scottie Lindsey while several players stepped into bigger roles, and by the end of the regular season, the Sea Bears, who finished the regular season 9-11, had a chance to host a playoff game.
“Our team has a lot of heart,” said Taylor. “ I want to say how much we respect and appreciate our guys going through all the roster changes and everything that happened.
“Guys worked really hard, they stayed together through everything,” he continued. “At the end of the day, you could see our improvement. I wish we had more time with this group, I felt like we were really getting better and competitive on the road and we just did not finish these last three road games but you could see the progress.”
Securing home-court advantage was perhaps more important for Winnipeg than any team in the CEBL entering the playoffs. The Sea Bears were 8-2 inside Canada Life Centre and a league-worst 1-9 on the road during the regular season.
It was a tall task for the club to become road warriors, and they looked anything but out of the gates.
Calgary surged to a 28-12 lead at the end of the first quarter. While most of the Sea Bears’ attention was on Davis Jr., his backcourt teammate, Mathieu Kamba, took the offensive reigns.
Kamba, who averaged 13 points per game during the regular season, looked like the best player on the court en route to 19 first half points. He was a pest on defence with multiple blocks and steals and an absolute force on the offensive end.
Meanwhile, the Sea Bears were a dismal one-for-12 from the field in the opening frame and simply did not match the hosts’ energy.
The Surge stifled Winnipeg’s offence by keying on Justin Wright-Foreman, who did not convert a field goal until 1:29 remained in the second quarter. Wright-Foreman, who is nominated for league MVP for the second year in a row, was a secondary scorer on this night, contributing 20 points on six-for-20 shooting while playing a game-high 37:52.
Calgary also held leads of 46-36 and 66-58 after the second and third quarters, respectively, and entered Target Score Time with a 75-71 lead.
Winnipeg had three possessions to win with the game tied 82-82. Wright-Foreman was stripped from behind in transition on one occasion, and Calgary forced another turnover following a baseline inbound on the next.
“In the winning-time possessions, we had too many turnovers,” said Taylor. “The guys were working so hard defensively to get those stops and to not capitalize on it was really tough.
“We’re going to learn from this year and we’re going to come back even better next summer.”
Emmanuel Akot led the Sea Bears with 23 points, while Lindsey chipped in with 15.
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Joshua Frey-Sam
Reporter
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’s reported primarily on amateur teams and athletes in sports and writes a weekly real estate feature for the business section. Read more about Josh.
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