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Bandits Lose to Edmonton, Cling to Playoff Spot (VIDEO)

Edmonton (Matthew Winick)- The Edmonton Stingers (12-1) used a dominant 25-0 spurt to begin the second quarter to cruise to a 106-65 victory over the Fraser Valley Bandits (5-6) on Wednesday night at the Expo Centre in Edmonton.
After getting thoroughly outplayed in the first quarter and trailing by 14, the Stingers caught fire in the second, using the 25-0 run to outscore the Bandits 35-4 in the frame. Edmonton never looked back from there and won the second half battle 57-33 to claim a 41-point win, tied for the second-largest margin of victory in CEBL history.  

“They made a lot of shots in the beginning, but we hang our heads on defense and we got a lot of deflections and got out and running,” said Stingers’ head coach Jermaine Small after the game, “Once we play like that, we’re just really hard to beat. I was really impressed with our defense from the second quarter on.”


Just as surprising about the Stingers’ domination is who they did it without. Starters Marlon Johnson and Mathieu Kamba sat Wednesday’s game out for rest, and star guard Xavier Moon didn’t hit a single field goal in the first half while Edmonton made its run.


Still, the offense thrived, as the 106 points scored by the Stingers was the highest total of any team in any CEBL game this season. 


The biggest reason for the offensive performance was the stellar play of guard Jahmal Jones. The former Ryerson Ram comes off the bench when Edmonton has its entire roster handy but starred against Fraser Valley, scoring a game-high 28 points with seven made threes, nine assists, six rebounds, five steals and only one turnover. 


“I know my teammates want me to stay aggressive,” said Jones, “On the offensive end, I just got confident, the guys have been telling me to shoot all season and today I got in a good rhythm.”


“I had the pleasure of coaching (Jahmal) when we were at Ryerson, and the thing I like about him is if he has a bad game, he always bounces back,” said Small, “Last game he was a little disappointed with his play, so I knew he was going to bounce back… he had a great game and he’s kind of the unsung hero right now. He’s so valuable.”
Edmonton beat Fraser Valley in basically every statistical category, but the 32-12 assist tally, and 15-6 three-pointer differential made some of the biggest differences. It seemed like each mistake the Bandits made was capitalized on by the Stingers, including back-breaking transition threes.


The Bandits jumped out to a strong first quarter on the back of hot shooting, which saw the team drill five of seven three-pointers early on. However, when the shots stopped falling and Edmonton’s did, the team lost its composure and never fully regained it.


“I think it was a little bit of a lack of confidence for us. Early in the game, I thought the first quarter was the best quarter of our season,” said Bandits’ head coach David Singleton, “As we tell these guys, one quarter can change a game. We got away from what we were doing and started turning it over and missing shots, and it unraveled from there.”
Alex Campbell was a bright spot offensively for Fraser Valley, scoring a team-high 21 points on the night.


Despite the demoralizing loss, the Bandits must regain their composure and take on the Stingers for the fourth consecutive time on Friday night at 9:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. MT in Edmonton/6:30 p.m. PT in Abbotsford. Most importantly for Fraser Valley, thanks to Ottawa’s loss earlier on Wednesday, just one win would clinch a quarterfinal game hosted at home in the Abbotsford Centre.

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