CEBL Season Tips Off Sunday as Surge, Stingers Renew Battle of Alberta Rivalry
(Preview: Week 1)
The CEBL is back, and it’s diving right in with the Battle of Alberta.
Edmonton Stingers forward Nick Hornsby already feels the bad blood.
“Even though I’m not from here, I understand it. I know the fans understand it. Even when we go to Calgary, they understand it. So it’s nice, I really enjoy it. It makes the games fun and makes it really exciting,” Hornsby said on Edmonton’s Sports1440 radio station.
The Stingers and Calgary Surge will meet in the CEBL season opener on Sunday at the Edmonton EXPO Centre at 6 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. MT, with live coverage available on Game+ as well as streaming on TSN+ and CEBL+.
Hornsby, 29, hails from Irvine, Calif., but heading into his third season with the Stingers, it’s become apparent what the provincial rivalry represents.
The 2024 campaign opened with the same matchup as the Stingers marched into Calgary’s Scotiabank Saddledome and left with a 97-79 victory. However, the Stingers’ season ended with a quarterfinal loss to the Surge in their own barn.
On June 19, the teams will do battle in Red Deer, Alta., about the halfway point between the two cities.
For now, Edmonton will concentrate on the chase for the franchise’s third championship.
The Stingers enter with familiar faces in Elijah Miller, Aaron Rhooms and Taye Donald in addition to Hornsby, who led last year’s team with 6.9 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game.
Meanwhile, point guard Scottie Lindsey came over after a season with the Winnipeg Sea Bears in which he averaged 13.3 points per game, and G Leaguer Cameron McGriff, who played three NBA games, is also in the mix.
In Calgary, a roster full of fresh faces to the CEBL has one marquee returnee in Sean ‘Rugzy’ Miller-Moore, set for his third season with the Surge. The Thornhill, Ont., native was second on the team with 16.4 points per game in 19 contests last year.
He’ll be joined by Gabe Osabuohien, the do-it-all Canadian forward who enjoyed a strong debut with the team last season.
A third Canadian, Abu Kigab, joins the holdovers after a year out of the league, while fans might recognize Jameer Nelson Jr., whose father was a longtime NBAer with the Orlando Magic, and Karim Mane, a Montreal native who played at Vanier and spent 10 games with the Magic in the 2020-21 season.
Talent at an all-time high
As the CEBL enters Year 7, one constant has been year-over-year talent improvement.
With more high-level basketball players littered on rosters across the country than ever before, the stage is set for what should be the greatest season yet — and what will definitely be the longest, as the schedule expands to 24 games per team.
Defending the title — as the Niagara River Lions are tasked with this season — has never been more difficult.
To wit: the 45 players with G League experience and the 39 who have signed NBA contracts both represent league records, while 10 players own NBA game experience.
Even more impressive, perhaps, is that 73 per cent of the league is Canadian, including 33 players who have represented the country in international play.
But the only way to continue growing is by having a stable foundation – and the league has certainly found that as 86 players enter the 2025 season with previous CEBL experience.
Some other notable stats:
- 98 players with professional experience playing overseas
- 96 former NCAA players
- 77 players from U SPORTS / CCAA (Canadian College Athletic Association)
- Five international players from Australia, Barbados, South Africa and South Sudan
Weekly schedule (one game)
Game #1 - Sun., May 11 - CGY at EDM - 4 p.m. MT / 6 p.m. ET - Edmonton EXPO Centre (Game+, CEBL+, TSN+)
For the full 2025 CEBL schedule, please visit
cebl.ca/games.
