Muenkat, McEwen Lead Honey Badgers Past Stingers in Back-and-Forth Affair

In the final minute of the first half, the Brampton Honey Badgers were inbounding the ball with three seconds remaining on the shot clock.

Quinndary Weatherspoon fed Koby McEwen as he rounded the corner above the three-point arc. McEwen rose up, fading toward the sideline, and drilled a three-pointer to put his team up 46-45.

It was Brampton’s first lead since the early stages of the game — and, after plenty of back and forth, it held up as the Honey Badgers beat the Edmonton Stingers 95-91 on Saturday at the CAA Centre.

Brampton improved to 2-7 with the win, while Edmonton fell to 4-6.

“We played well together. First five minutes we didn’t really lock in on the game plan, but we were able to regroup and turn things around and play through the runs, so good team win,” Honey Badgers head coach Sheldon Cassimy said.

The Honey Badgers took an 85-83 lead into Target Score Time.

Edmonton tied things on its second possession with a Keon Ambrose-Hylton floater, but Omari Kelly nailed a three to give Brampton back the lead on the following play.

Scottie Lindsey then cut the Stingers’ deficit to one, but David Muenkat responded with a triple. After Muenkat knocked down a pair of free throws, Brampton was one point away from victory.

But Edmonton wasn’t done yet. A Lindsey free throw and an and-one from Sean East II cut the Honey Badgers’ lead to 93-91 — and put both teams a bucket away from victory.

Brampton got the first shot at victory and Quinndary Weatherspoon missed a layup, but the rebound went out of bounds off of Edmonton — and the Honey Badgers didn’t miss their second chance.

Muenkat received a pass under the basket and turned around for a layup off the glass for his second game-winner of the season.

“I had a little guy on me so kind of wanted to use that size advantage. It was just recognizing and try to attack the mismatch,” Muenkat, who was named player of the game, told sideline reporter Dhanung Bulsara after the contest.

McEwen wound up as the team’s leading scorer with 23 points to go with six assists and three rebounds.

Muenkat, the hometown kid, finished with a massive 15-point, 14-rebound double-double, while Kelly also had 15 points. Weatherspoon contributed 16 points and seven assists to the winning cause as well.

McEwen, another GTA local who chose to play with the Honey Badgers so he could be closer to home, said the win felt good for the team.

“I think for the most part we played well. We rebounded, we shot the ball and we defended when we needed to. A lot of things to clean up, but it’s always good to win,” McEwen said.

Cassimy said McEwen’s strong performance started on the defensive end.

“I have all the trust and faith in Koby. He’s a great player and he just focused on defence first and the offence came,” Cassimy said.

The Stingers were coming off a win over the defending champion Niagara River Lions one night earlier, and the strong play continued in the first quarter with a seven-for-seven mark from deep.

But, perhaps with tired legs on the second half of the back-to-back, the Stingers offence sagged from there, finishing with a 40 per cent mark from deep and 44 per cent overall.

“(The Honey Badgers) punished us inside, they got shots that they wanted and we were OK with trading baskets and not really giving a full effort defensively but that’s a challenge of a back-to-back is trying to stay engaged and dialed in,” Stingers head coach Jordan Baker said.

Sean East II once again led all Stingers scorers with 22 points, while Scottie Lindsey added 20 points, four rebounds and four assists.

Do-it-all forward Nick Hornsby stuffed the stat sheet with 13 points, seven assists and four rebounds.

But Lindsey said his squad may just not have had enough left in the tank coming off Friday’s hard-fought win.

“Tough loss for the team when we were building momentum, but every loss is something you can learn from and there’s always room for improvement,” Lindsey said.

Edmonton’s Mason Bourcier left the game in the second half with an upper-body injury.

The Stingers beat the Honey Badgers 99-81 in their first meeting of the season in May, and it looked like things were headed in the same direction in the early going.

Edmonton’s perfect three-point shooting propelled it to a 33-24 lead after the first quarter. But Brampton ramped up its defence in the second frame and took a 49-47 advantage into halftime after two late threes of their own.

A tightly contested third quarter ended in a 73-71 lead for the Honey Badgers, and they were able to hang on from there.

Now with wins in two of three following a slow start to the season, Brampton appears primed to go on a run.

“Early on in the season, we were trying to build the chemistry,” Cassimy said. “But we had basically a whole week to practice, so we’re gelling, we’re working together better and I think it’ll continue to go in the right direction.”

Box Score

https://www.cebl.ca/game?id=2600610

Up Next

Brampton’s home stand continues with a game against the Saskatchewan Rattlers on Friday, while Edmonton heads to Red Deer, Alta., for a showdown with the Calgary Surge.

Next CEBL Action

A three-game Sunday slate includes Ottawa hosting Niagara, Winnipeg welcoming Saskatchewan and Calgary awaiting Scarborough. For the full 2025 CEBL schedule and up-to-date results, please visit cebl.ca/games.

- CEBL -