The Winnipeg Sea Bears and Brampton Honey Badgers will decide the Canadian Elite Basketball League championship in its first best-of-three Finals series. Game 1 tips off Wednesday, August 12, at Brampton’s CAA Centre before the series shifts to Winnipeg.
All three possible games will air nationally on CBC and TSN, with streaming through CBC Gem, TSN+, YouTube and CEBL+.
The Finals schedule
- Game 1: Winnipeg at Brampton, August 12 at 7 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. CDT
- Game 2: Brampton at Winnipeg, August 15 at 2:30 p.m. CDT / 3:30 p.m. ET
- Game 3, if necessary: Brampton at Winnipeg, August 16 at 2:30 p.m. CDT / 3:30 p.m. ET
Games 2 and 3 are scheduled for Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg.
Two uneven seasons lead to the title series
Winnipeg reached its first CEBL Finals by beating the Vancouver Bandits in the Western Conference final. The Sea Bears had competed with Vancouver for the conference’s top seed despite limited time together for former league MVPs Teddy Allen and Xavier Moon.
Allen led the CEBL with 27.8 points and two steals per game during the regular season, but an injury kept him out of Winnipeg’s first two playoff rounds. The league said his availability for the Finals remained unclear in its August 11 preview.
Brampton followed a 7-1 start with a 1-7 stretch and finished 11-13, narrowly securing a playoff place. The Honey Badgers then defeated the Ottawa BlackJacks and two-time defending champion Niagara River Lions to win the Eastern Conference.
Moon and East II lead the offences
Moon has averaged a team-high 22 points per playoff game for Winnipeg. Simon Hildebrandt added 24 points in the conference-final victory, while Jelani Watson-Gayle scored 27 in the semifinal.
Sean East II has led Brampton with 25.5 points per game during the playoffs, along with 17 total assists and 12 rebounds. Trentyn Flowers has scored 45 playoff points, and Matthew Moncrieffe has collected 20 rebounds.
A first for Winnipeg, another chance for Brampton
The Sea Bears had never advanced beyond the semifinals before this season. The Honey Badgers won the 2022 championship while based in Hamilton but had not won another playoff game until this year.
After Wednesday’s opener, the teams receive two days without a game before the series resumes Saturday in Winnipeg. A deciding third game will follow Sunday at the same venue if the teams split the first two contests.