BANDITS EDGED BY RIVER LIONS IN SUNDAY AFTERNOON TILT

LANGLEY, B.C., July 3, 2022 – Daniel Walden-Mullings pulled down a pair of huge offensive rebounds, converting the second-chance opportunities both times, as the Niagara River Lions stormed back from a double-digit deficit to defeat the Fraser Valley Bandits 102-99.

The Canadian Elite Basketball League game was played on Sunday afternoon at Langley Events Centre and leaves both teams with identical 8-4 records, good for a share of second place in the 10-team league.

The Bandits led 29-18 after a quarter and were up 53-40 when the teams went to the locker room for halftime.

But after trailing by double digits for much of the first half and by as many as 19 points in the second quarter, the River Lions came out a different team in the second half, cutting the deficit to two points by the end of the third period before taking the lead for good early in the fourth and leading the rest of the way.

“Giving up 102 points is too much, we can’t allow that, number one. Number two, the efficiency of our offense: we leave 10 points at the free throw line in a one-possession game,” said Bandits coach Mike Taylor, referencing the fact his team shot just 14-for-24 (58.3 per cent) from the charity stripe.

Taylor was happy with the team’s start but felt they lost their consistency and concentration.

“Sometimes you have a strong start to the game and you think it is going to be easy the rest of the game,” he said. “And this is the point: when you relax -- which is human nature – you relax and let your foot off the gas …  and today what we saw was it was really hard to regain control of that momentum. And give Niagara a lot of credit: they played really hard; they made some great plays down the stretch.”

After trailing by 13 points at halftime, the River Lions came out a different team in the second half, outscoring the Bandits 62-46 the rest of the way.

“They showed us a lot of heart. We talked to the guys about it before the game -- just who are you when we are on the road, when things get tough – and they showed us who they are,” said River Lions coach Danielle Boiago. 

“In the first half, Fraser Valley hit a lot of tough shots, down in the shot clock with our hands down, so we talked about getting out at shooters and cleaning up the boards, and we were able to run from there,” Boiago said, adding that the second-half message was to take better care of the basketball.

“When we come down and are turning over the ball and we are giving up easy shots at the other end, it is really hard to play like that. Take care of the ball, run our stuff and we got good looks out of it.”

The River Lions would take their first lead since the opening quarter early in the fourth quarter and led by as many as 10 points before Fraser Valley got the deficit down to six at 93-87 just before the Elam Ending.

The Bandits did get the score down to a single point at 97-96 but Walden-Mullings twice pulled down offensive rebounds and converted both opportunities before Khalil Ahmad drained a game-clinching free throw.

Walden-Mullings finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds, three steals, two assists and a blocked shot.

“I can’t say enough about Daniel Mullings. He’s the heart and soul of our team, he’s our captain. He does the little things and when we talked about paying attention to details, he is the guy that does that, so for him to come up with those o-boards was huge for us,” Boiago said.

Khalil Ahmad – the CEBL’s leading scorer at 21.6 points per game – led the River Lions with 23 points while Jordan Tchuente had 22. 

The Bandits were led by 24 points from Shane Gibson, the seventh time he has led the team in scoring, while Alex Campbell scored 19, Kyle Adnam and Murphy Burnatowski each had 13 and James Karnik finished with 12. Karnik also had a team-high nine rebounds and he has led Fraser Valley in that category in all four games he has played for the team.

Fraser Valley will now hit the road for their next three games with games against Newfoundland (July 5), Ottawa (July 8) and Montreal (July 11).

The Bandits next home game at Langley Events Centre is July 15 (7:00pm) against the Guelph Nighthawks. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased 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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Game notes:

The game marked the return of Marek Klassen, who re-signed with the team ahead of the game. The Abbotsford native is in his seventh season of professional basketball, most recently playing for Czarni Slupsk in the Polish Basketball League.

This is Klassen’s fourth season with the Bandits and he is first all-time in franchise history for assists, second in scoring and second in made three-pointers. 

The team also announced that they granted Kadre Gray his release from the team to pursue other playing opportunities.