BANDITS BOUNCE SCARBOROUGH, RETIRE KENDALL’S NUMBER IN FRONT OF SOLD-OUT CROWD

LANGLEY, B.C., June 18, 2022 – While Saturday night was the Shane Gibson Show, it was the depth of the Fraser Valley Bandits which carried the team to victory.

Gibson scored 29 points – just missing the franchise mark of 30 – in the first 37 minutes, but while he missed both of his shots in the Elam Ending, the Bandits still came through with a 92-89 win over the visiting Scarborough Shooting Stars at Langley Events Centre in Canadian Elite Basketball League action.

Four different Bandits each scored a basket in the Elam Ending and Alex Campbell hit the winning free throw – which came after Fraser Valley came up with back-to-back steals on Scarborough possessions – to send the sell-out crowd home happy.

Fraser Valley won for a second consecutive game and moved into second place at 5-2 while the Shooting Stars dropped to 4-4.

“Great win. Scarborough brought an outstanding team: you saw the size, the length, the athletics, the talent. I loved our team’s competitiveness, the teamwork, the heart they put into it. I think it was visible to see the effort these guys put in together,” said Fraser Valley coach Mike Taylor. “It’s a great win on a great day: Levon gets his jersey retired, we had the clinic pre-game, big sellout crowd, fantastic day for the Bandits organization and a really, really hard-fought win for our team.”

For the game, Gibson finished with 29 points, a team-high eight rebounds, three assists, a steal and a blocked shot.

Gibson was more concerned about the team getting the victory than about any individual accolades.

“Our team played hard and showed a lot of character. It was a close game and if you are going to be a good team, you need to win those games,” he said, referencing the fact the team is 4-0 in games decided by three points or less.

“Shane is in it to win it. He’s a very talented player, he is always in attack mode to score. He’s really difficult to guard, but he’s also very unselfish: you see him passing the ball, and what we love is that he plays both ends,” Taylor said.

“This is the mark of our team: we have guys who are talented offensively, are smart and play both ends of the floor, and today it was a great example.”

The Bandits came out hot, building an early 21-7 lead thanks to some great outside shooting as they hit four of their first eight three-point attempts and were up by nine points after 10 minutes and the lead was eight at the half (49-41) with Gibson scoring 16 in 17:36 of first-half court time, surpassing his season average (14.5).

Scarborough made their move in the third quarter, cutting the lead down to one point at 74-73 before finally taking their first – and only lead of the game – at 81-80 just over four minutes into the fourth quarter. That lead would only last for 95 seconds when Murphy Burnatowski hit his third three-pointer of the game before the Shooting Stars’ Kameron Chatman would tie the score on the next possession with a dunk, setting up the Elam Ending with a target score of 92.

The fact his team was chasing for almost the entirety of the game was too much for the Shooting Stars to overcome.

“It is very difficult when you are on the road playing a good team and you are putting yourself in a hole with turnovers and stuff that we do much better,” said Scarborough coach Chris Exilus. “We (need) to execute in the end and that was the difference in the game. We need to make sure we execute in the end.”

While Gibson scored a game-high 29 points, Campbell, Burnatowski and Thomas Kennedy each had 15 points for the Bandits. Campbell also had five steals and Burnatowski now sits tied for third in the CEBL with 25 three-pointers on the season. 

The Shooting Stars had five players in double figures, led by Jalen Harris’ 22.

“Our key word for the game was persistence. We knew that some of these guys … if we have a great defensive possession, they still have the talent to make a great defensive play and hit a shot,” Taylor said, referencing the fact that while Harris – a former second round pick of the Toronto Raptors who has played 13 games in the NBA – scored 22, he also needed 22 shots to reach that total.

Fraser Valley is back in action on June 21 when they visit the Guelph Nighthawks before returning to Langley Events Centre to host the Montreal Alliance on Friday, June 24 (7 p.m. PT).

Single game tickets are available for purchase at thebandits.ca/tickets. Fans are kindly asked to call (604) 866-0529 or email tickets@thebandits.ca for any questions or ticket related inquiries.

Games are available on CEBL+ live internationally and in Canada at cbcsports.ca, the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices and the free CBC Gem streaming service. Games are also available on the CEBL’s official app, CEBL Mobile (available on iOS and Android devices), as well as TELUS Optik TV Channel 1901 Lower Mainland and via live streams on 604 Now’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

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