It might look like a mismatch on paper, but Jordan Baker is confident his Edmonton Stingers have a good shot at upsetting the first-place Vancouver Bandits. The team’s head coach points out his Stingers, who finished the Canadian Elite Basketball League regular season with a 9-15 record to place fourth in the Western Conference, won two of their four games against the 15-9 Bandits, including one on the B.C. squad’s home court. The one-game division semifinal at the Langley Events Centre begins at 8 p.m. and will be broadcast on several platforms, including TSN’s television feed. “We have the confidence that we can get a win in that building,” Baker, who also serves as the Stingers’ general manager and president, told CTV News Edmonton on Wednesday. “It’s a high-stakes atmosphere. With a single elimination, anything can happen, so we’re coming in with the mentality that we’ve got to be better than our last couple of games, but with an understanding that we don’t want this season to end.” The Stingers squeaked into the playoffs, winning just two of their last 10 games of the season, their final victory on July 26 the one that eliminated the surging Calgary Surge, who finished last in the five-team division at 8-16. Edmonton lost their last two games of the schedule, both at home. Baker called the regular season “a little bit of a roller coaster,” one that saw the team climb its way to a .500 record via a four-game win streak in late June and early July only to sputter for the rest of the month. “We had a string of really well-played games and with lots of good execution, and then other times, we got ourselves behind the eight ball a few times, and we were trying to scratch and claw to get back into ball games, and just fell short, just like on Sunday, unfortunately,” Baker said, referencing his team’s 96-89 loss to the Ottawa BlackJacks to close out the regular season. “But I think the character of our team is, we’ve been dealt lots of adversity this season. We’ve managed to, every time our backs are against the wall, respond and play the right way.” The Stingers are led by 30-year-old veteran forward Nick Hornsby, who paced the team this season in several categories – points (15.4 per game), assists (6.1), rebounds (8.1) and steals (1.4) – and became the franchise’s all-time leader in them in early July, while missing seven games. Guards Stanley Davis Jr. (13.7 points, 3.5 assists, 3.8 rebounds) and Emmanuel Bandoumel (11 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.7 assists), and forward Tre King (12.1 points, 3.9 rebounds) also factor in the Stingers’ attack. The Bandits are led offensively by guards Jarkel Joiner (17.8 points, 4.5 assists) and Shamar Givance (10.4 points, 5.4 assists), and forwards Tyrese Samuel (17.1 points, 8.7 rebounds) and Mitch Creek, the latter of which is the reigning CEBL MVP who re-joined the club in mid-June and missed most of the season due to duties with the Australian national team. In three regular-season games this year, the 34-year-old Creek has averaged 28 points, six assists and seven rebounds a game, which includes a 28-point, six-rebound performance in Vancouver’s previous game, a win over the Winnipeg Sea Bears. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Noah Rishaug
