Vancouver Bandits Outlast Shooting Stars in Back-and-Forth Thriller

Tie ball game, next basket wins — it doesn’t get better than that in the CEBL.

And who better to play hero than Zach Copeland, capping off his return to the lineup and team-high scoring night with a side-step triple to seal a 100-97 Vancouver Bandits victory over the Scarborough Shooting Stars on Tuesday.

“Just wanted a little space, that’s all I needed,” Copeland said post-game, reflecting on the game-winner. “I’ve done this before and I just wanted to come through again.”

With their second consecutive win, the Bandits improved to 10-3 and extended their lead atop the Western Conference. Meanwhile, the Shooting Stars fell to 7-7 and remain in second place behind the Niagara River Lions in the East following a second straight road loss.

Copeland finished the game with 28 points and five made threes on a 41 per cent clip, all of which came after he had missed the team’s last 11 contests. Behind him was Bandits' captain Mitch Creek with 20 points, six rebounds and five assists, and Corey Davis Jr., who put up a double-double of 18 points and 12 assists while finishing a game-high plus-15 in the narrow victory.

“Easily one of the best point guards I’ve coached,” Bandits head coach and general manager Kyle Julius said of Davis’ impact after the game. “Both sides of the ball, no one scores on him one-on-one … he plays with passion, toughness and the guys respect him.”

On the other side, Terquavion Smith also put up a team-high 28 points (on 11-of-17 shooting) to go with nine rebounds. Donovan Williams (16 points, 10 rebounds) and Kalif Young (10 points, 11 rebounds) did their part as well with double-double efforts. It was a milestone night for Young, as the big man passed Jordan Baker for the all-time regular season lead in rebounds (523).

Rounding out Scarborough’s efforts was Jaden Campbell, who added 17 points off the bench on 6-of-9 shooting.

“Our controllables needed to be better down the stretch,” Shooting Stars head coach Mike DeGiorgio said after the loss. “We have to go back to the drawing board … it’s a result-based business.”

Tuesday’s contest between the cross-conference opponents was the type of edge-of-your-seat intrigue that the CEBL built itself on when implementing the Target Score ending.

It was a game of runs that saw Vancouver lead by as many as 17 points in the first half, using a 13-5 run to open the ball game, and a perfect 3-for-3 start from Samuel, to do so.

But as the Montreal native, along with Davis, missed most of the second quarter as both dealt with foul trouble, Scarborough stormed back. Using a 12-4 run sparked by eight straight points from Smith, then a quarter-ending 6-0 charge that was capped off with a Jayden Coke transition slam.

It turned the double-digit deficit into a far more manageable 50-43 score in favour of the Bandits headed into halftime.

And the Shooting Stars kept that momentum coming out of the break, opening the second half on a 13-4 run to take their first lead of the ball game on a Smith transition layup. Creating that fastbreak opportunity was Cat Barber, who, while struggling to score (three points on 1-of-8 shooting), grabbed two steals to pass the 100 mark — just the third player in CEBL history to do so.

“We were all over the glass and it allowed us to hit first,” De Giorgio said when asked how his team took charge in the third, noting his team won the rebounding battle 49-40 on the night.

Scarborough wasn’t able to extend that lead to double digits, however, as Vancouver punched back to end the third, using an 8-0 run and hitting three triples in the final two minutes to bring its deficit down to 72-70 before the fourth quarter.

The Bandits then re-took the lead by starting the final frame on an 8-0 run, going up by as many as eight points in the fourth before holding onto a 90-89 lead headed into Target Score Time.

“You’re not going to win every night by 20 points,” Julis said. “We have to stay poised and execute, and we did a good job of that.”

And it was fitting that with the clocks stopped, it remained a back-and-forth affair, both teams trading baskets. Smith tied the ball game at 97 with a free throw, but missed the second intentionally with hopes of scoring a game-winner off it. Instead, he stepped out of bounds while trying to corral the loose ball.

All of which set up Copeland to bring the 4,408 in attendance at the Langley Events Centre to their feet with his fifth and final three of the game. The import scored six of Vancouver’s 10 points in Target Score Time.

Underscoring the Bandits' victory was a strong effort to win the turnover battle. They forced 21 turnovers off the Shooting Stars, who entered Tuesday averaging 14.9 per game. No player was bothered more by the pressure than Williams who accounted for nine of those turnovers. It resulted in a plus-six margin in points off turnovers that proved to be the difference.

“That’s what we do,” Copeland explained on winning the turnover margin. “We want to run off misses or makes, we’re trying to get out in transition … put pressure on the defence.”

Box Score

https://www.cebl.ca/game?id=2600629