Alliance hoping to punch back against Shooting stars in second game of home-and-home set

After going head-to-head two days ago in Montréal, the series moves to the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre where the Scarborough Shooting Stars (-167) will play host to the Alliance (+120), tipping off at 8:00pm ET on Friday night. 

The game will be available for streaming live on TSN+, CEBL+ powered by BetVictor, and on the CEBL Mobile app available on iOS and Android devices.

It’ll be the third and final regular season matchup between the two squads as they head into the final stretch of the 2023 campaign. The Shooting Stars will be looking for their first inter-conference sweep of the season as they head into tonight leading 2-0 against the Alliance. 

Taking a dominant 104-72 win back in June – largely due to a red-hot 51 per cent shooting night from three – Scarborough followed it up, by taking a narrow 83-80 victory on Wednesday. They made nine more triples than Montréal did in their first contest but returned back to earth in their latest bout as the Shooting Stars drilled just seven on a 31 per cent clip. 

However, they did make the most important three-ball of the night when Cat Barber hit a dagger from deep to end the contest.

Despite their struggles from distance, the Shooting Stars still found a way to come out on top, making it back-to-back wins heading into tonight. It was mainly because of their dominance on the class that the team was able to sneak out a victory. They grabbed 53 boards on the night, 10 more than the Alliance on the offensive end, subsequently earning themselves a +12 edge on second chance points. 

Four different players on Scarborough had eight or more rebounds on the night, led by Chaundee Brown Jr. who had nine in his debut with the team.

Rebounding wasn’t the only area in which the big man impressed, as he also put up a game-high 32 points in his first outing with the Shooting Stars. He shot over 50 per cent from the field and distance, so it goes without saying that the forward made a positive impression, and fans will be hoping he can replicate that impressive performance, on Friday night.

On the other side, Montréal have now lost three of their last five games, barely holding onto their play-in spot in the Eastern Conference over the defending champion Brampton Honey Badgers. 

If the Alliance are going to get over the hump against this Scarborough team, and create some separation in their post-season push, they’re going to need another reliable contributor outside of Trevon Graham. Through two games the forward has averaged a stellar 20 points and 15 rebounds but hasn’t received much consistent support. 

The team’s points per game leader Ahmed Hill (19.8 PPG), put up just six points in the first head-to-head against Scarborough, and despite following that up with 18 points in their most-recent matchup, he still shot an inefficient 38 per cent from the field while committing five turnovers. 

Fans of Montréal will also be hoping they can get the Nathan Cayo performance from two days ago, where he put up 21 points, and not the one from June where the big man put up a single point on 0-8 shooting. 

Montréal rely heavily on the trio of Graham, Hill, and Cayo who currently account for nearly 70 per cent of the team’s scoring production. Needless to say, they’ll need all three guys to step up on the same night, or have some of their bench players join them to give themselves the best shot at coming out on top in this one.

With both teams having less than four games remaining in their regular season, the inter-conference rivals can make some major playoff strides with a win. For Scarborough, a victory could help them vault over the Niagara River Lions, who they’re currently tied with at second in the East, and who’ll also be playing on Friday night.

Meanwhile, with just half a game separating the Alliance over the Honey Badgers, every win is going to be vital for the team as they try to secure their first playoff berth in franchise history.

All games will also be streamed live internationally on the CEBL’s OTT platform, CEBL+ powered by BetVictor, and on the CEBL Mobile app for iOS and Android devices. Full list of betting props available on BetVictor. Preview written by Zulfi Sheikh (@zulfi_sheikh).

The full eastern conference standings can be found here.

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