Sea Bears Push Mamba to the Wire in 100-98 Road Battle

For the first half, the Winnipeg Sea Bears looked every bit like the team that could hand a desperate Saskatoon Mamba their fifth straight loss. Then the third quarter happened.

The Sea Bears carried a six-point halftime lead into the locker room, holding the Mamba to just 47 points through two quarters. But Saskatoon came out of the break with an urgency Winnipeg couldn't match, outscoring the Sea Bears 25-16 in the third to flip a six-point deficit into a three-point advantage and the damage proved too steep to fully erase.

When asked what keeps going wrong on the road, Head Coach Mike Raimbault wasn't ready to pin it on location. "I don't know if it's necessarily geographical in nature. If we look at the game, there's possessions that we're not executing at both ends of the floor. We could be taking care of the ball a little bit better, making stronger choices and closing out some defensive possessions. It's a handful of possessions on either side of the floor that we've got to do a better job of."

Teddy Allen led the way with a game-high 28 points on 9-of-17 shooting, adding seven rebounds and four assists across 38 minutes. Armani Chaney was sharp with 14 points on 3-of-6 from three, while Emmanuel Akot put together one of the night's most efficient performances, shooting 4-of-5 from beyond the arc for 14 points.

Akot's threes late in the fourth knotted the game at 91 and gave the Sea Bears every chance to steal it.

Raimbault acknowledged just how big that moment was. "It was a big moment in terms of trying to dig back from the hole that we put ourselves in, and it's unfortunate that we couldn't finish on it."

But Saskatoon had an answer every time. Tavian Dunn-Martin was cool under pressure, finishing with 21 points and eight assists, while Jaden Bediako dominated the interior with 17 points and 10 rebounds. The Mamba's 15 offensive rebounds translated into 21 second-chance points, a margin that proved decisive in a two-point game. Winnipeg's 63% free throw shooting left further points on the table.

The loss drops the Sea Bears to 3-3 on the season, with all three defeats coming on the road. 

Raimbault's message to the locker room was clear. "We just have to continue to buy into moving forward and correcting some of those possessions. It takes everybody to be on the same page, to be a little bit more connected and we're right there. We just have to find a way to close it out."



Your Sea Bears are back on the road against the Ottawa Black Jacks on June 4. Tune in at 6:30 PM on CBC Gem, cbcsports.ca, CBC Sports YouTube, or CEBL+.