Williams' Return Leads Shooting Stars to Win Over Sea Bears

The Scarborough Shooting Stars’ roster is starting to take shape and they appear ready to make some noise.
Donovan Williams' return from a four-game absence proved momentous, as the CEBL’s leading scorer put up 30 points to lead the Shooting Stars (7-5) to a 103-93 win over the Winnipeg Sea Bears (5-7) on Friday.
While it wasn’t quite a repeat of Scarborough’s dominant showing as last Sunday, a 32-point win against the defending champion Niagara River Lions, the victory did mark back-to-back games setting season-highs in scoring for the Shooting Stars, as they’re now just 0.5 games behind first place in the Eastern Conference.
Williams entered the road game averaging a league-best 25.5 points per game (among qualified players) and only increased that lead atop the leaderboard after his game-high 30 points on 11-of-18 shooting to go with six rebounds and four assists.
“They made a big run, but we weathered the storm,” Williams said post-game. “We hit a little adversity, but we did all the things we needed to do to win the game.”
Right behind him, however, was Terquavion Smith, who finished with 28 points, going 7-for-10 from the free throw line while adding five rebounds and five assists. A late addition to the Shooting Stars, the import is averaging 26.8 points through four games. David Walker’s 12 points and Joirdon Nicholas’s 13 off the bench rounded out Scarborough’s double-digit scoring efforts.
“That’s a team win, a gritty road win,” Shooting Stars head coach Mike De Giorgio said after the win. “They hit us back and we just responded. Kudos to our guys, they really locked in.”
On the other side, Simi Shittu led the way with 25 points on 9-of-13 shooting, five rebounds and three blocks. Jalen Harris and Tevian Jones also chipped identical lines of 21 points and three assists.
“We fought towards the end, (but) it kind of got away from us in the second quarter,” Harris said after Winnipeg’s second straight loss directly after a four-game win streak. “We’ve got to figure it out before we get back for the next one.”
Although the outcome resulted in a second consecutive double-digit victory for the Shooting Stars, it wasn’t without its intrigue.
Scarborough appeared to be headed towards another emphatic win when it had built a 21-point edge in the first half, thanks to a 14-0 run in the second quarter and withstood a late 11-3 push by Winnipeg to still lead 58-46 at halftime.
That lead was largely built thanks to some hot early shooting, going 6-for-10 from distance in the opening frame, and some opportunistic defence as the Shooting Stars forced eight Sea Bears turnovers in the first half. Quite the uncharacteristic showing from Winnipeg considering it averaged just 13.3 per game entering the night, second-fewest in the CEBL.
The Sea Bears cleaned things up coming out of the break, however, only giving it away four times the rest of the way, even winning the turnover battle 17-12 by the final buzzer.
“It’s all about effort,” Shittu said post-game. “When teams are making runs like that, it’s all about effort, really … we got a lot of talent, guys who can play. It’s just about being connected.”
It was that disciplined second half that helped Winnipeg storm back, cutting what was a 14-point halftime deficit as low as five points in the third before trailing 78-70 after 30 minutes. The Sea Bears also made things easier by upping the rim pressure and getting to the line, scoring without burning clock as they finished plus-15 on free throw attempts and went 28-of-37 from the charity stripe.
From there, the Sea Bears did give it one last push, cutting down to nine in Target Score Time what was up to a 15-point deficit early in the fourth, but they couldn’t inch any closer as the Shooting Stars duo of Williams and Smith got to work.
The pair of imports scored all of Scarborough’s points with the clock stopped, the first four by Williams before Smith’s game-winning layup capped off five straight points from him.
Underscoring the victory was the Shooting Stars' dominance on the glass, finishing plus-13 (43-30), with their 14 offensive rebounds good enough to earn a 17-12 edge on second chance points and a plus-10 edge on paint points (54-44). Fronting that effort for Scarborough was Khalil Miller’s 14 rebounds, which tied a single-game franchise record.
Box Score
https://www.cebl.ca/game?id=2600619
Up next
The Shooting Stars stay on the road, visiting the Edmonton Stingers on Sunday for the second leg of a three-game road trip. Meanwhile, the Sea Bears depart from Winnipeg to start a three-game road trip of their own, starting by visiting the Ottawa BlackJacks on Tuesday.
Next CEBL action
The CEBL resumes on Saturday with an Eastern Conference class between the 5-4 Montreal Alliance and 4-6 Ottawa BlackJacks in the nation’s capital.
For the full 2025 CEBL schedule and up-to-date results, please visit cebl.ca/games.
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