Surge overpower Sea Bears

Winnipeg Free Press

24-05-2025

It reached a point where players of the Calgary Surge were more concerned about how many points they had individually rather than the lead they were building.
A stats check during a 34-14 run in the third quarter should've been the last thing on players' minds, yet there they were on Friday evening.
It was that kind of night for the Winnipeg Sea Bears.
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Sea Bears forward Jaylin Williams (centre) shoots over Surge guard Jameer Nelson Jr. (right) Friday night at Canada Life Centre.
While the hosts never showed any signs of waving the white flag, a 98-86 loss to the Surge before 7,475 at Canada Life Centre left the Sea Bears with questions about their extended lapses for the second game in a row.
'We knew coming in that it would be a test of us athletically. Calgary is a really athletic team. And give them credit, we played their game today,' said head coach Mike Taylor.
Jameer Nelson Jr. hit the game-winning free throw to improve the Surge to 2-1 on the young season in the Canadian Elite Basketball League. Winnipeg dropped to 1-1.
'It was a transition game. It was fast-paced. They drove strong at us (in) one-on-one situations. I think for our guys, we started the game a little bit slow. Like we said to them early in the game, they punched us in the mouth early, and how do we respond to that?' Taylor added.
'It took us a while to get going, the physicality and pressure defence that they played, we did not get the same quality of shots that we did, say, in the first game, and that kind of sputtered our offence a bit at times.'
The Sea Bears had their moments but got in their own way more times than not.
A few numbers that will jump out: outscored 22-3 in fast-break points and 58-38 in points in the paint.
Jaylin Williams paced Winnipeg's offence with 21 points in 29 minutes. Meanwhile, Terry Roberts supplied a 16-point, 10-rebound double-double, while Tevian Jones supplied 16 points.
'Nothing really surprised me much,' Williams said. 'We've been preparing for — they like to drive, they're a driving team, which we struggled with tonight and helping each other out and being there for each other. That's something that we got to improve on.'
Surge guard Sean Miller-Moore led the charge for the visitors with 29 points in 38:05 of play time, both game-highs. Fellow guard Nelson Jr. chipped in with 25 points, seven rebounds and three steals.
'In the first quarter they came out very aggressive. They played very physical,' said Emmanuel Akot, who finished with 10 points and three rebounds.
'We went down, fought back, but when you create a deficit like that, it's always hard to win games, so I think we just need to start out quarters better, especially in the first and third.'
The Surge held leads of 27-14, 48-47 and 81-61 at the end of each of the first three quarters. For the second game in a row, Williams scored the first basket, and the Sea Bears jumped out to an early lead. Unlike their previous contest, this one didn't last long.
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Sea Bears forward Solomon Young (left) and guard Geoffrey James (right) battle for the ball with Surge forward Greg Brown III (on floor) Friday night at Canada Life Centre.
The Surge offence began to cut through the Sea Bears' defence like a hot knife through butter, racking up 24 points in the paint to the host's eight and scoring 12 fast-break points to Winnipeg's zero in the opening frame.
While Calgary opened the game with a 23-11 run, Winnipeg went through a dry spell on offence that lasted more than four minutes. It finally ended with a three-pointer from Solomon Young.
The Sea Bears came alive in the second quarter with a unit led by Roberts and Akot.
A pair of sweet buckets from Roberts and a make from long range from Akot sparked a 22-12 run for Winnipeg to open the second quarter.
Things began to unravel for the hosts in the third quarter as Calgary opened the game up on a 14-0 run, which proved to be enough as Winnipeg's shots struggled to fall.
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Calgary entered Target Score Time with an 89-74 advantage.
'Definitely lapses,' said Akot. 'Definitely got to work on that. Last game, giving up a big lead, and this game, giving them a big lead. We're still a new team. We've only been together for a short period of time, so we learn from this as the season continues to go on. We just keep getting better. Yeah, a learning experience.'
Winnipeg was still without standout centre Simi Shittu, who remains with Promitheas Patras of the Greek Basketball League.
The Sea Bears and Surge will complete the second of a home-and-home in Calgary on Sunday (3 p.m. CT).
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Joshua Frey-SamReporter
Josh Frey-Sam reports on sports and business at the Free Press. Josh got his start at the paper in 2022, just weeks after graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College. He reports primarily on amateur teams and athletes in sports. Read more about Josh.
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