The Edmonton Stingers are Canadian Elite Basketball League champions.
The Stingers won the CEBL championship Sunday afternoon in a 101-65 win over the Niagara River Lions at the Edmonton EXPO Centre.
“We were supposed to be here last year, so getting this opportunity to be in front of our home crowd, it’s amazing. It’s amazing for the city of Edmonton and it feel good to go back-to-back,” Stingers guard Xavier Moon said.
Xavier Moon finished with a double-double and led the Stingers in scoring with 28 points and 10 assists.
Edmonton’s Jordan Baker also had a double-double, with 19 points and 10 assists.
“We started the summer with no fans in our first game, and obviously it’s a packed house tonight, so we’ve come a long way, and didn’t lose at home, which is a great feeling,” Baker said. “We wanted to make Edmonton proud and I think we did that tonight.”
Philip Scrubb led Niagara with 17 points and shot 5-of-8 from beyond the three-point line.
His brother, Thomas Scrubb, added 15 points and six rebounds.
The win caps off a dominant season for the Stingers, who went 13-1 in the regular season.
“We just wanted it more,” Stingers head coach Jermaine Small said. “Last year, since we won it in a bubble, we felt like there was an asterisk best it; a few people actually said that to me. So the opportunity to win it at home and win it in a regular season is so special for us.”
Moon was named player of the year for the third straight year. Jermaine Small was named coach of the year. Adika Peter McNeily was named sixth man of the year.
This is the team’s second straight CEBL title in the league’s three-year existence.
Last year, the Stingers won their first CEBL championship in the league’s Summer Series in St. Catherines, Ont. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, there were no fans in the stands for that series.
With files from Slav Kornik, Global News and The Canadian Press.
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