Miller-Moore Leads Surge Past Host Sea Bears Into CEBL Final
(Western Conference Final)
With the Calgary Surge’s title aspirations hanging in the balance, it felt fitting that Sean Miller-Moore was the one to send his team into Sunday’s Championship Final.
Arguably no one on the court at Canada Life Centre on Friday night was better equipped to understand the stakes for his team than the Brampton, Ont., native — a mainstay of the Surge’s roster since the franchise moved to Calgary in 2023.
Miller-Moore had previously felt the sting of leading Calgary all the way to the title game two years ago, only to fall short of a championship after losing to the Scarborough Shooting Stars. So, when the guard carried the ball up the court, sized up and drove right through Trevon Scott for a layup, it not only stood as the game-winning basket in the Surge’s 90-79 victory over the Winnipeg Sea Bears, it also marked an opportunity three years in the making.
“It feels great … but it doesn’t mean anything unless we win (a championship),” Miller-Moore said after he was done waving goodbye to the 9,082 in attendance for the Western Conference Final on Friday. “We’re excited for the opportunity to get there. Obviously it’s my second time there, it’s a great feeling.”
Come Sunday when the Surge take on the defending champion Niagara River Lions, redemption awaits.
The Surge captain finished the night with 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting, including four triples and seven rebounds. Evan Gilyard II did his part as well, scoring a game-high 24 points while going 6-of-12 from beyond the arc, while Jameer Nelson Jr. chipped in 16 points, four assists and three steals. Meanwhile, Greg Brown III put up a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds while tying a franchise single-game playoff record with four blocks.
“We knew it was going to be a heavyweight fight,” Calgary head coach Kaleb Canales said after the win. “It took 12 rounds, and we’ve got one more fight on Sunday.”
On the other side, Scott led Winnipeg’s effort with a team-high 18 points, five assists and two steals. Will Richardson was right behind with 17 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and three steals as he played the full 40 minutes. Rounding out the Sea Bears double-digit scoring efforts was Simi Shittu with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
The loss dropped Winnipeg to 0-3 all-time in the post-season and marked the franchise’s second consecutive playoff loss at the hands of Calgary.
“I felt like we were right where we needed to be,” Sea Bears head coach and general manager Mike Taylor said. “The effort was great … I’m proud of the guys.”
Entering the night, it was no secret that the Surge had a preferred style of play: turn defence into offence. After the game, Canales admitted as much, saying “it’s been our identity, our brand of basketball all season.”
And while that worked early — carrying a 28-19 lead into the second quarter after forcing four turnovers in the opening frame and converting them into easy rim attempts to the tune of a plus-14 edge in paint scoring — those plans had to change as the game progressed.
The Sea Bears would settle down throughout the second and wouldn’t allow the Surge to go 9-of-12 from inside the arc like they did in the first quarter. In fact, Winnipeg held Calgary to just 14 points in the frame on five made field goals as it cut what was once a 13-point first-half deficit into a 42-36 margin at the break.
So, coming out of halftime, it was clear that the Surge needed to find offence elsewhere and luckily for them, they did.
It may have merely been drizzling outside the Canada Life Centre on Friday night, but come the second half, there was an undeniable downpour inside the arena.
Calgary would rain down 10 threes in the final 20 minutes, including 6-of-13 in the third quarter to balloon its lead to 16 points (68-52) heading into the fourth quarter before finishing with 16 makes from beyond the arc (plus-nine) on a 36 per cent clip. Considering that the Surge ranked in the bottom half for both three-point makes and percentage per game during the regular-season, it was an even more impressive showing.
Highlighting that effort was Miller-Moore, who, despite converting at just 28.6 per cent from downtown on the season, nailed two triples in the third and finished 4-of-8.
“We knew all summer that we’re a third-quarter team,” the guard said. “We see what they’re giving us and we just adjust.”
However, the host city Sea Bears wouldn’t be denied one final push — even without Jalen Harris, who ended up with just eight points in 16 minutes as he was hampered due to back spasms.
After a barrage of three Olumide Adelodun triples had Winnipeg down by as many as 21 points in the final frame, it cut the deficit to 81-68 at the start of Target Score Time and continued storming back with the clocks stopped in a charge that was, once again, uncharacteristically led by defence. The Sea Bears forced the Surge into eight turnovers during Target Score Time as they clawed the deficit down to eight points on a Scott layup.
“Give them credit, they played really well,” Taylor said. “Even though we didn’t have our best offensive performance, I’m proud of our team and the way we battled today … the effort was there but the execution was not where it needed to be.”
Unfortunately for the Winnipeg faithful, the comeback stopped there as Calgary wasn’t done hitting threes. Gilyard nailed a semi-transition triple from the right wing to give the Surge the necessary breathing room to set up Miller-Moore’s winner.
“At the end of the day, it’s just two points,” the Surge captain said when asked about game-sealing play. “I try to treat it like any other point, and (Gilyard) hitting that big three relieved some pressure off all of us, we were just two points away.”
Box Score
https://www.cebl.ca/game?id=2700731
Up Next
One final game remains on the schedule for 2025 as the Surge will take on the Niagara River Lions on Sunday at 6 p.m. CDT / 7 p.m. ET to determine the next CEBL champion.
Niagara earned its spot in Sunday’s Final after eking out a 93-91 win over the Scarborough Shooting Stars earlier on Friday thanks to Khalil Ahmad’s heroics.
The defending champs will look to become just the second team in league history — behind the Edmonton Stingers in 2020 and 2021— to win back-to-back titles, while the Surge aim to capture their first.
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