Vancouver Bandits set a CEBL scoring record on the road against Ottawa Blackjacks, and the teams combined for the second-highest scoring CEBL game in a 130-112 win for Vancouver.
Mitch Creek and Tyrese Samuel led the way for the road team, with Creek scoring a game-high 36 points while Samuel added 33 to go with 17 rebounds. Shamar Givance scored a CEBL career-high 22 points along with eight assists, while Kyle Mangas and Zach Copeland both had 12.
鈥淲e have a group of guys that are super competitive,鈥� Bandits head coach Kyle Julius said of his team. 鈥淲e have a drill that we practice that nobody wants to do, but as soon as they start doing it, they start competing and talking trash and getting after it. So, we said that鈥檚 what today was: today was going to be that drill.鈥�
Vancouver built up a 21-9 lead before Ottawa stormed back with a 13-5 run of their own to cut the deficit to four. The squads would continue trading baskets 鈥� each seemingly unable to stop the other 鈥� until the Bandits took a 73-62 lead into halftime. That score by the Bandits is the second highest halftime total in the CEBL鈥檚 history, trailing only the then-Guelph Nighthawks record of 75 in 2019.鈥�
BlackJacks and Bandits have both secured a spot in their respective Conference Semifinals and will host their first playoff games on Aug. 16. BlackJacks will await the winner of the Montreal Alliance and Scarborough Shooting Stars matchup, while the Bandits will face the winner of the game between the Edmonton Stingers and Calgary Surge, both on Aug. 14.
