Brampton Honey Badgers finish BCLA 2nd window action with 109-93 loss to host team Real Estelí in Nicaragua

The Brampton Honey Badgers dropped a 109-93 decision to Real Esteli on Wednesday in the second window of the Basketball Champions League Americas in Managua, Nicaragua.

As the loss moves the Honey Badgers to 0-4 in group play, Brampton is now officially eliminated from advancing to the quarterfinals, but will continue to represent Canada, as they enter the third window of group play in Brampton starting February 7.

Brampton lost despite a team-high 25-point performance from Rayvonte Rice and a 17-point effort from Steve Taylor Jr., who also filled the stat sheet with nine rebounds, five assists and a blocked shot. Joshua Ibarra added 11 points and Sean Miller-Moore added nine in the loss.

Real Esteli was led by a 33-point, 13-rebound double-double performance from Thomas Robinson, 27 points from Jezreel De Jesus, and 16 points from Angel Matias. Davon Jefferson added 11 points and nine rebounds. The team shot 49 percent in the win, including 46 percent from beyond the arc, while holding the Honey Badgers to 43 percent shooting, including 28 percent shooting from deep.

“We [take] our hats off to Real Esteli, they played a really good game,” Honey Badgers head coach Sheldon Kirt Cassimy said. “They played together. You can see the numbers, 31 assists, and 20 offensive rebounds. That’s the story right there, so we tip our hats to them.”

Real Esteli’s veteran roster coupled with its size proved to be a challenge for Brampton.

“Their team is good,” Cassimy. “They have vets, they have good size. The vets are their guards, [where they had] 31 assists. The size of Jefferson and Robinson, the team is solid.”

After a three-pointer from Taylor Jr. to start the game, Brampton led for 1:26 minutes before a 12-point run by Real Esteli moved the host team in front and Brampton was left playing catch-up for the rest of the game.

Free throws from Rice in the final seconds of the quarter trimmed Real Esteli’s lead to 13 points after the first 10 minutes of action, but it was a difficult opening quarter for the Honey Badgers who shot just 31 percent from the floor.

Rice helped ignite a solid second quarter for the Honey Badgers, scoring 13 of his 25 in the quarter as he played the aggressor and was rewarded with free throw after free throw. After a seven-point flurry from Rice, the deficit was within single digits, 36-27, with 5:49 remaining.

Brampton continued to keep pace with Real Esteli as a three from Jahvon Henry-Blair, followed by a dunk from a cutting Taylor Jr. baseline made it a six-point game. A last-second putback from Robinson gave Real Esteli a 54-46 advantage at the break.

“We started to gel together today better than yesterday, but as Coach said, it’s hard to win a game when they have 20 offensive rebounds,” Rice said. “They also had a lot of assists. They were playing together.”

Brampton bounced back from a 13-point opening quarter to explode for 33 points in the second behind a 13-point second-quarter effort from Rice who led the Honey Badgers with 20 points at the half. Rice was 13-for-14 from the free-throw line in the half, as Brampton’s aggressiveness resulted in 18 free throw attempts.

Unfortunately for the Honey Badgers, the third was all Real Esteli as they won the quarter 28-18, closing the quarter on an 11-2 run to go into the fourth with an 82-64 lead.

After the teams traded baskets to start the final frame, Rice continued to score, connecting from deep to trim the lead to 16 with 7:16 remaining. After the Real Esteli bench was called for a technical foul, Gelvis Solano made the free throw, and then followed with a three-pointer that trimmed the deficit to 88-76 as Real Esteli called timeout with 6:40 remaining.

From there, Real Esteli put together another mini-run, outscoring Brampton 12-4 to build the lead back to 20 points with 3:45 remaining. They went on to victory from there.

Though the result wasn’t what the Honey Badgers had hoped for, the experience was a positive one.

“This is my first time out here [in Nicaragua] and I thought the atmosphere was amazing,” Cassimy said. “It was great to see, fun to be a part of and I hope I can come back again. As we look forward to the window in Canada I hope we can bring the same type of energy.”

For Rice, who just joined the team prior to this second window, the opportunity to hit the court with his Honey Badgers teammates in front of a home crowd in Brampton is something he’s looking forward to.

“Be ready for us to compete, come out and get better energy,” Rice said. “We’re starting to gel. I feel like we’re trying to bring back these two wins.”