Vancouver Bandits Release Glen Yang

The Vancouver Bandits announced Saturday that forward Tyrese Samuel has signed an NBA Summer League contract with the Brooklyn Nets. The news was announced by the Nets on social media and the club’s website in a release . A 6-foot-10 forward from Montreal, QC, Samuel played a key role for the Bandits during the first half of the 2025 CEBL season. He played and starting in 10 games, while posting averages of 18.9 points, 10.2 rebounds and 1.4 assists. In his CEBL debut on May 15, 2025, Samuel set the Bandits single-game scoring record with 36 points, along with 12 rebounds and two assists. His all-around play has made him a strong midseason candidate for CEBL Canadian Player of the Year. Samuel will be joined by 2025 NBA Draft first round selections Egor Dëmin (eighth pick), Nolan Traore (19th pick), Drake Powell (22nd pick - agreed in principle to acquire his draft rights from Atlanta in a trade that is expected to be finalized at a later date), Ben Saraf (26th pick) and Danny Wolf (27th pick) on the Nets’ roster, who will begin NBA Summer League play on July 10 with scheduled games running until July 20. The Bandits have placed Samuel on its Suspended List in order for him to participate in NBA Summer League play while also retaining his CEBL rights. He will return to the club at the conclusion of his commitments.

The Vancouver Bandits announced Friday that the club has re-signed Canadian forward Kur Jongkuch for the remainder of the 2025 Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) season. The 6-foot-9 forward is putting on a Bandits jersey for his third consecutive season. During the 2024 CEBL campaign, Jongkuch appeared in all 20 regular season games and two playoff games for the Bandits, including six starts. Known for his high-energy and defensive prowess on the court, he holds the franchise’s single-game blocks total, pulling down 18 rebounds on July 28, 2024 at Montreal. He posted averages of 4.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 12.9 minutes of action per game last summer. Prior to joining the Bandits this summer, Jongkuch most recently played for Slovenian club KK Illrija. He averaged 9.9 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 27 games played and helped lead the club to a semifinal appearance in the Slovenian Basketball League playoffs. 2025 marks the fourth year of Jongkuch’s professional basketball career, which include previous stops in Denmark (Horsens IC) and Canada (London Lightning). Originally from Juba, South Sudan before moving to London, Ont. with his family at a young age, Jongkuch played post-secondary basketball at the University of Northern Colorado for four seasons from 2018 to 2022. In his sophomore year with the Bears, he led the Big Sky Conference in field goal percentage. He then transferred to Temple University for his graduate year, where he suited up in 32 games for the Owls while completing a master’s degree in business innovation. Internationally, Jongkuch represents Canada in FIBA competition. He was a member of the Canadian men’s U23 team in 2022, with whom he captured a bronze medal at that year’s GLOBL JAM invitational tournament.

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