Report: The Guelph Nighthawks Tame The Niagara River Lions! Are The River Lions As Good As We Thought?

In the 2019 CEBL season, the Niagara River Lions were the best team in the league and were projected to win the championship. However, in the semi-conference finals against the Hamilton Honey Badgers, the Lions shockingly lost against the fourth seed, which was one of the biggest upsets in Canadian sports history! Fast forward to the present-day, Niagara, at the start, had a very impressive line-up filled with many new faces while signing many familiar faces. On paper, the River Lions appeared to be the best team in the league as their star-studded bench would more than likely take them to the playoffs in hopes of resurrecting their terrible loss. To make their chances even more challenging, the River Lions are limited in games and need to act fast if they want to have an actual shot at winning a title.

On July 28, 2020, the Niagara River Lions would face the Guelph Nighthawks to accomplish their goal. The Nighthawks, however, have an agenda of their own. Last season, Guelph was arguably the most dysfunctional team in the league as they bounced from coach to coach while displeasing many of their players. This year, the Nighthawks have revamped their entire roster and coaching staff and, as a result, have been seen as a completely different team.

This game is essential for both teams as they both have goals and objectives to resurrect their disappointing 2019 season. At the start of the first quarter, both teams scored fast, but the defence was the story for the entire game. In the beginning, Guelph had a better edge when it came to scoring the basketball and attempted to continue to maintain that momentum throughout the whole game. Niagara however, failed to convert anything on the offensive end and only scored 10 points in 10 minutes of play! For a team like Niagara, who has elite scorers such as, Daniel Mullings, Kassious Robertson, Guillaume Boucard, Ryan Anderson, Samuel Muldrow, and Trae Bell-Haynes, scoring just 10 points is problematic especially if your team is projected to win the Summer Series! Luckily for Niagara, Guelph struggled to shoot the ball, but their intensity and focus were more adamant when they entered the court, leaving the score at 15-10 with Guelph in the lead!

In the second quarter, Guelph would start to struggle on the offensive end. Instead of capitalizing from their five-point lead, they struggled to make anything and started to lose grip on their impressive momentum. Niagara, however, would begin to make a little comeback but had no structure to it as almost every player on the court was playing hero basketball. The reason why the Oklahoma City Thunder failed to beat Portland in the first round of the 2019 quarter-finals was that both Westbrook and George were playing hero basketball instead of playing as a team. The same thing can be said about Niagara as they have the talent to be the best offensive team in the league, but instead, they insist on playing isolation basketball with barely any movement of the ball. Despite their struggles, the Lions were fortunate enough to have Guelph also having their scoring struggles, but at least they played good defence and trusted each other as a team. Due to Guelph struggling on offence, Niagara would make an aggressive lead ending the first half with the score of 31-30 with Guelph still having a sliver of comfortability.

Tre’ Darius McCallum- 18 PTS | 2 AST | 1 STL

Despite their scoring struggles, Guelph was the better team in this game due to their ball movement and shot creation. Even though their percentage was terrible, their misses were unlucky as they appeared to be having an off-day. Niagara however, appeared to be locked in but were intimated by Guelph’s impressive defensive line-ups. This quarter, Guelph made it clear that this is their game to win as they went on an impressive scoring run. With Niagara turning over the ball countless times, Guelph was able to respond and take control of it. Niagara appeared to be losing their confidence, but Tyrone Watson played an impressive game while coming off the bench. Guelph would silence Niagara’s chances of winning this game as the final score at the end of the third quarter would be 57-47, where Guelph would make a significant jump in every statistical category.

With three horrible scoring quarters for Niagara, every player on the roster insisted on playing hero basketball. From their terrible shot selections to careless passes, Niagara played the worst basketball in their franchise history and appeared to lose trust in themselves and each other. Guelph however, wasn’t any better, but at least their defence kept their momentum early on. As both teams were struggling initially, Tyrell Green would hit a crucial three-pointer that elevated the Nighthawk’s confidence by a significant margin. Their offensive stride would finally click as they were close to impossible from missing any shots. Tre’ Darius McCallum, who led the team in scoring, had an incredible fourth-quarter performance and officially burned any chances of Niagara winning this game. Guelph would make a statement to the rest of the CEBL as they would defeat the Niagara River Lions with a score of 84-65, making this one of the worst games in River Lion history!