Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) action comes to Calgary for the first time on Saturday with an All Alberta match between the Edmonton Stingers and Calgary Surge at 4:00 p.m. MT at the WinSport Event Centre. The game can be streamed on TSN+, CEBL+ powered by BetVictor and on the CEBL Mobile app for iOS and Android devices.
At the end of the season, the teams will play a home game. Another meeting is scheduled for Sunday at 4:00 pm MT at the Edmonton Expo Center. The Surge are the latest iteration of the Guelph Nighthawks after the franchise relocated to Calgary for the off-season.
The Nighthawks and Stingers both finished 2022 with 10-10 records. During the playoffs, Guelph went to the Langley Events Center and defeated the Fraser Valley Bandits, but suffered a 99-78 quarterfinal loss to the Niagara River Lions in the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, the Saskatchewan Rattlers ended the Stingers’ title streak last season by beating the defending champions 94-91 in a tight playoff game.
Calgary’s top two scorers in 2022 have signed with new teams for the 2023 season. Cat Barber joined the Scarborough Shooting Stars and Ahmed Hill signed with the Montreal Alliance. Key contributor TJ Lall also left to sign with Niagara. However, the team brought a number of players west from last year’s roster. Sean Miller-Moore, Maurice Calloo, Stef Smith and Clayton Henry have all signed with Surge.
Miller-Moore averaged 7 points per game with Guelph last season with a 54 percent shooting percentage and represented the CEBL in the Basketball Champions League Americas tournament with the Brampton Honey Badgers. Smith also played with Brampton in the BCLA tournament and averaged 7.6 points in 16 games with the Nighthawks last season. He has had an outstanding performance in Serbia, where he averaged over 23 points in 13 games.
The Surge also made some important signings of their own. Americans Trevon Scott, Admon Gilder and Kylor Kelley will look to make a difference for Calgary after their 2023 contract. Scott is a 6-foot-1 forward from Cincinnati who most recently averaged over 17 points and nearly 7 rebounds in the NBA G-League. Gilder is a Gonzaga and Texas A&M guard who has averaged over 18 pins in 30 pro games around the world, while Kelley is a 7-foot-1 player with three years of pro experience in the G-League, England and Denmark.
Calgary have also added Canadian talent in Mason Bourcier and Simi Shittu to strengthen their roster this season. Bourcier was drafted with the third pick in the 2023 U Sports Draft after going all out for the Trinity Western Spartans during the varsity season and providing solid minutes for the Newfoundland Growlers in the CEBL last year. Shittu, a British-Canadian doubles center with NBA preseason experience and four seasons in the G League, has signed with Calgary and could play a major role this season.
Meanwhile, two-time CEBL champions Edmonton Stingers will be looking to get back on track in 2023. Former Canadian CEBL Player of the Year Jordan Baker is making the move off the field to the touchline, taking on Jermaine Small as head of the Stingers coach. Baker was previously a senior assistant at his alma mater at the University of Alberta and is currently the head coach of NAIT Ooks.
Baker is joined by his former teammates Adika Peter-McNeilly, Aher Uguak and Brody Clarke as returnees from last year’s roster. Peter-McNeilly was the sixth CEBL man of the year during Edmonton’s 2021 championship run and has averaged 10.7 points per game in 60 CEBL regular-season appearances. Clarke won the 2020 title with the Stingers and returned last season to record a team-high 12.9 points. In his debut pro season last year, Uguak made a lasting impression by contributing 9.7 points per game, including a career-high 21 against Ottawa in July.
The Stingers also made key signings in Chandler Vaudrin, Nick Hornsby and Carlton Bragg Jr. Bragg, a 1.80 meter tall forward from Cleveland, has previously played in Poland, Mexico and Turkey. Over the past two seasons in the Turkish Basketball Federation, Bragg has averaged over 15 points and 8 rebounds per game. Chicago-born Hornsby brings points, rebounds and 100 games of professional experience to the Stingers in Germany and Israel. Meanwhile, Vaudrin comes to the Stingers with an NBA pedigree, signing a preseason deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers before signing on to their G-League affiliate in 2022.
All CEBL matches can also be streamed live on the league’s OTT platform, CEBL+ Powered by BetVictor, and on the CEBL’s official app, CEBL Mobile, available on iOS and Android devices.
The CEBL is a league created by Canadians for Canadians with the aim of developing Canadian players, coaches, sports managers and referees. The CEBL has the highest percentage of Canadian players of any professional league in the country: 71 percent of its 2022 roster are Canadian. Players bring experience from the NBA, NBA G League, top international professional leagues, Canada National Team program and top NCAA programs, and U SPORTS. Nine players transitioned from the CEBL to the NBA after a CEBL season, and 28 CEBL players attended NBA G League training camps in October. The CEBL season runs from May to August. For more information on CEBL, visit CEBL.ca and @cebleague on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube.
