The Scarborough Shooting Stars poured it on in the final quarter on Friday to bounce the Brampton Honey Badgers 98-74 in a Canadian Elite Basketball League play-in game held at Toronto’s Pan Am Sports Centre.
Cat Barber led the Shooting Stars with a CEBL playoff-record 32 points, including seven 3s, and seven assists. The Scarborough squad finished third in the Eastern Conference with an 11-9 record, while the Honey Badgers finished fourth with an 8-12 mark.
Kyree Walker added 25 points for the winners, who will travel to Ottawa on Sunday to face the BlackJacks in the Eastern Conference semi-finals at TD Place Arena. Ottawa finished second in the East with a 12-8 record.
Isiaha Mike added 15 points for the Shooting Stars, who trailed 19-18 after the first quarter, but led 45-36 at the half. Scarborough took a 70-58 lead into the final quarter and then outscored the Honey Badgers 28-16.
Callum Baker and Shamiel Stevenson led the short-handed Honey Badgers with 16 points each. Zane Waterman chipped in with 10 rebounds.
“It’s the play-in game. I don’t care what I gotta do. I feel like I gotta step up more. So I was turned up tonight and I’ll be turned up the rest of the year,” Barber said after the win. His seven 3s was also a single-game CEBL playoff record. His points record fell in the evening when Teddy Allen scored 35 for the Sea Bears.
“He’s a high-level player and a high-level winner and all season he’s been doing this stuff,” Scarborough head coach Chris Exilus said of Barber.
The Honey Badgers played without three of their best players: Christian Vital, Koby McEwen and Jeremiah Tilmon Jr.
“I’ll always believe that we had enough (talent) in (the game).” said Brampton head coach Antoine Broxsie. “Whenever you miss some players, it’s always hard.
“But at the same time, you still have to prepare and you don’t make excuses. Scarborough went out and they took us out of what we did.”
In the late play-in game, the Edmonton Stingers defeated the Sea Bears 87-81 in Winnipeg, Man.
A game-winning three by Isiah Osborne in transition gave the Stingers the victory. Osborne led the Stingers with 24 points, while teammates Brody Clarke scored 13 and Aher Uguak had 11.
The Stingers finished third in the West with a 9-11 record, while the Sea Bears were second at 12-8. With the win, the Stingers advance to the Western Conference semi-finals and play the Surge on Sunday at WinSport Event Centre in Calgary, Alta.
Teddy Allen led the Sea Bears with 35 points and 10 rebounds, while Jelani Watson-Gayle chipped in with 18 points. Simon Hildebrandt had 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Hours after Scarborough’s Barber set a playoff-record 32 points in a play-in win over Brampton, Allen recorded 35 points to set a new CEBL playoff record for points.
Edmonton led 45-41 at the half and took a 66-65 lead in to the final quarter.
“We held them to 16 points in the fourth quarter, so that was big for us,” Edmonton head coach Jordan Baker said after the game. “It’s playoff basketball time and you got to get stops to win basketball games.”