Vancouver Bandits fell to the Niagara River Lions 97-95 in the CEBL championship game Sunday, Aug. 11 at Verdun Auditorium.
It was close.
Niagara led 87-77 at the start of Target Score Time, but Vancouver slowly chipped away by winning rebound battles and watching a tired River Lions squad consistently settle for three-pointers.
Eventually, Niagara’s lead was whittled to two points at 94-92. With the River Lions in possession, Raso put the ball in the hands of two-time Clutch Player of the Year Khalil Ahmad, who drove to the net and got fouled, putting his team two free throws away from glory.
Ahmad made the first but missed the second.
“I can’t believe he missed the free throw,” head coach Victor Raso said. “I’ve never seen him miss a free throw like that, I don’t think ever. And then he just followed that up the next possession.”
In a seeming flash, Vancouver secured the rebound, came back down the court and tied the game at 95 courtesy of a Koby McEwen three-pointer — leaving both teams within a basket of the championship.
But that was as close as the Bandits would get.
Ahmad won the championship when he beat two defenders down the lane and rattled home a floater.
“That’s the biggest bucket of my life for sure. To get a chip like that on the third [season with Niagara], that’s the biggest bucket of my life. I can’t even put it into words,” Ahmad said.
Mitch Creek, who led the Bandits with 26 points, said his team put itself behind the eight-ball with a slow third quarter.
“When you put yourselves in a position to have to fight back, it’s really hard to repeatedly do that. We almost got lucky twice,” said Creek, whose Bandits survived a roller-coaster semifinal against Calgary. “Some of us might have to go to the casino and roll a few dice tonight and try to win back some of the emotions.
For Vancouver, which won the West with a 14-6 record, it was not the end to their season they’d envisioned when arriving in Montreal earlier this week.
League MVP Tazé Moore was held to just six points on 2-for-11 shooting. More damningly, the man who led the league with 7.3 assists per game in the regular season was held without a single helper in the one that mattered most.
Creek also chipped in 13 rebounds, while McEwen scored 20 points and big man Nick Ward added 13 points and seven rebounds off the bench.
Creek said the loss was “sad, hard and tough.”
“You do so much and if you don’t feel emotion after a loss in the championship game it means you haven’t really done the work and put in the time and effort,” he said.
An exciting first half saw the teams trade leads throughout.
Bandits built a five-point edge in the first quarter, only for the River Lions to roar back and go up 23-20 when the buzzer sounded on the frame.
Niagara kept it rolling early in the second and led by as many as eight, but Vancouver punched back with a 14-2 run. A late Duane Notice three-pointer sent the Bandits into halftime with a 46-44 advantage.
Notably, Tazé Moore struggled through the first 20 minutes, managing just two points and taking his frustrations out in an unsportsmanlike foul against Niagara’s Omari Moore.
After halftime, the River Lions slowly started to take control. An 11-0 run powered them to what was then a game-high 12-point lead, and the East champions carried a 71-62 advantage into the fourth quarter.
Tension built when the clock turned off and the game began featuring plenty of stoppages for timeouts and reviews.
For a few moments, it seemed as though the Bandits would pull off the biggest Target Score Time comeback in CEBL playoff history.
Instead, the River Lions roared to their long-awaited championship.
Thank you Bandits family for an amazing summer.#LikeABandit pic.twitter.com/5rftLs90C0
— Vancouver Bandits (@vancitybandits) August 12, 2024
Bandits have made the CEBL playoffs in five consecutive seasons dating back to 2020 (2020-24), while Niagara has qualified for the playoffs in each of its six CEBL seasons
In that five year span, the Bandits have only advanced to the CEBL Championship game once, falling to the Edmonton Stingers in the title game in 2020. Niagara advanced to the 2021 CEBL in Edmonton championship after winning its lone postseason tilt with the Bandits -- a dramatic 84-82 victory in the CEBL's semifinal
Neither club had ever won a CEBL title before Sunday.
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