Myles Dichter
CEBL.ca
The playoff picture in the Western is beginning to come into focus.
The Calgary Surge beat the Saskatchewan Rattlers 95-87 on Sunday at the Sasktel Centre, building a three-game lead for the conference’s final post-season spot with four contests remaining.
Meanwhile, the first-place Vancouver Bandits and second-place Edmonton Stingers clinched their playoff berths due to the Rattlers’ loss.
After accumulating a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter, Saskatchewan had the opportunity to put pressure on both Calgary and fourth-place Winnipeg with a victory – instead, it’s feeling the pressure itself.
The Rattlers fell to 6-10 with the loss and now sit 1.5 games behind the Sea Bears. Head coach Larry Abney said his team played “32 minutes of great basketball.”
“Everybody knows what’s at stake. I guess it’s basically a race between us and Winnipeg right now. Game by game, we gotta go after our 40s with the urgency that it may be our last opportunity,” Abney said.The
Surge, whose win was their third straight, improved to 9-7 and can suddenly focus more on catching the Bandits and Stingers than worrying about the teams behind them.
“It was a good win,” said Surge guard Stefan Smith. “It was a really good end of the game with defence. … And I think we know that we can be the best team in the West. We just gotta keep winning games”
Smith led Calgary with 29 points off the bench to reach 500 for his regular-season CEBL career.
The Ajax, Ont., native showed no signs of rust after missing the Surge’s previous game with a lower-body injury, as he played over 28 minutes and added eight rebounds.
And it was all Smith to end the game. With just over seven minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Calgary ripped off a 15-1 lead to take an 85-79 advantage into Target Score Time.
Smith then proceeded to score the next 10 points for Calgary on four consecutive possessions. He finished the game with a contested layup before having some words with an opposing fan.
“I was just trying to play hard and my teammates were doing a good job getting me the ball,” Smith told sideline reporter Heather Morrison after the game. “I got into a rhythm, and it was go-time in the end.”
For three quarters, the game went back and forth as neither team was able to grab momentum.
Calgary closed the first quarter with a 24-23 edge, but the Rattlers used a 15-3 run to jump ahead by 12 – their biggest lead of the game.
The Surge cut their deficit to five by halftime, and a strong start to the second half saw them go up 63-60.
But this time it was Saskatchewan who fought back to regain a four-point lead at 71-67 through 30 minutes. The Rattlers expanded that edge to 79-70 in the opening minutes of the fourth — and then it all fell apart.
Calgary head coach Tyrell Vernon said the comeback started on the defensive end.
“I think just stringing stops together, attention to detail. I think we had a little more urgency, where I think Saskatchewan had more urgency for the first three quarters,” he said.
Now, the Rattlers’ season is teetering on the brink.
Teddy Allen led Saskatchewan with 28 points on 25 shots including a six-for-17 mark from beyond the arc, while fellow starter Emmanuel Bandoumel poured in 25 points.
“We wanna learn from the game tonight,” Bandoumel said. “But at the same time, we need to be desperate and have a short memory. We still have a chance to make it to the playoffs and we still believe in it. Now it’s about controlling what we can control.”
Allen’s inefficient night was part of Calgary’s game plan as forward Mathieu Kamba trailed him throughout the fourth quarter, making it difficult for the reigning MVP to get clean looks.
“Three quarters I thought were a little bit sluggish. Defensively I thought we were a step behind,” Vernon said. “But fourth quarter we really turned it around, just flying around. Kamba did an amazing job defensively just trying to keep the ball away from Teddy’s hands.”
Calgary completed a three-game sweep of the season series against Saskatchewan with the win.
Now, it can start thinking about making a second straight run to the CEBL Finals – and this time, perhaps, coming away with the trophy.
“For us we just gotta have the identity to get stops, winning every possession and then we’ll live with the results,” Vernon said. “I don’t wanna look too far ahead on what we can do or what we will be. I think if we just focus on every individual possession as if it’s our last, I think we’re gonna set ourselves up for success.”