Stingers keep Group A competition alive with win over Cangrejeros

CALGARY  (Canada) - In the final stage of Basketball Champions League Americas group play, Group A’s Edmonton Stingers finally found a win against Cangrejeros in a 93-87 win at Winsport Arena in Calgary.

Cuyler Mosley stepped up the intensity to start for Stingers, recording 5 points in the first four minutes of play shooting 100 percent from the floor. The intensity carried to the defensive end as they pressured Cangrejeros to move the ball more than usual and run out the shot clock or take unbalanced shots to get the ball back.

Unfortunately for Stingers, while their offense was fluid, bad fouls committed on defense gave Cangrejeros chances to come back into the game sending Davon Jefferson to the line three times in the quarter.

Malcolm Duvivier continued to lead the charge for Stingers as he didn’t miss a single shot in the quarter and accounted for 8 of Stingers 18 first quarter points.

As he has in past competitions, Jefferson dominated in the paint and recorded 7 points and 5 rebounds in the quarter as Cangrejeros scored a last second basket to tie the game at 22 points each.

Stingers came back strong in the second quarter with hot hands at the 3-point line, able to gain another lead on Cangrejeros, shooting 42 percent from beyond the arc in the first half of the game.

However, Cangrejeros continued to grab defensive rebounds and score in transition and cut what was once a 5-point deficit to just one point with one minute left in the second quarter, though fouls under the basket allowed Stingers to pull ahead 45-42 to end the quarter.

Jordan Baker had a standout quarter for the Stingers tallying 8 points, including two baskets from the arc, while also grabbing 9 boards for the Stingers against a physical Cangrejeros team.

"We've got five guys in double figures, they've got two, we were a lot more balanced tonight we got up and down," said Baker.

"We knew they wanted to slow the game down, we wanted to speed it up, got out in transition, look at the quarter scores, it's tight all the way through."

Stopping Jefferson by holding him to just 4 points and 1 rebound in the quarter, Stingers eliminated one of Cangrejeros’ biggest threats in the competition, Christopher Gaston and Isaac Sosa stepped up in his absence on the scoring front.

 

Unlike their previous matches where they came out of the half flat, Stingers maintained their energy coming out of the half to stay within reach of a win. Baker continuing to use his size to get to the rim as well as grabbing defensive boards as Stingers’ ability to shoot from mid-range fell in the quarter.

Cangrejeros stayed in the game and fought back with physical play managing to score much needed points as Sosa found the net on back-to-back plays to give Cangrejeros a three-point lead halfway through the third quarter.

The tandem of Sosa and Jefferson came back to battle as Cangrejeros outscored Stingers 24-19 with Jefferson scoring 13 points and Sosa adding 7, but a last second 3-pointer by Jahmal Jones, who had an 8-point quarter for Stingers, put them ahead by one point heading into the final 10 minutes of play.

 

"This team has a tendency to go on a run in the third or fourth quarter and blow things open, but we managed to handle the storm and play our best in the fourth," said Baker.

While the majority of the quarter was a one-point back and forth between the two teams, Baker managed to pull a rebound for a jumper to give Stingers a 3-point lead with just over five minutes to play in the half as he already tallied a 15-point, 15-rebound double-double.

In a deadlock tie back and forth for almost two minutes, Stingers finally broke the scoring as Jean-Victor Mukama scored a three-pointer to bring his game total to 10 points and help Stingers lead 79-76.

With the momentum on their side, Stingers scored another seven unanswered points to lead by 10 points with one minute to go in the game, but Sosa and Jefferson’s accuracy from beyond the arc cut their lead to six with 20 seconds to play.

Stingers managed to keep up their energy unlike they had in previous games against Cangrejeros, and accuracy from beyond the arc secured the win in Group A.

"The job's not done, it takes a win on Wednesday for us to move onto the next round, we're gonna watch some film, break things down, lots of things we can still improve on," said Baker.

"Gonna obviously watch the game tomorrow, learn what we can and come back Wednesday focused."