‘Huge for us going forward’

The Winnipeg Sea Bears needed to see one go through the hoop — even if it had no effect on their place in the standings.

With the Canadian Elite Basketball League playoffs around the corner and the club sliding as of late, there was a sense that a victory could go a long way toward rebuilding some confidence in a team that believes they should be playing for a championship in a couple of weeks.

A nail-biting 100-92 triumph over the Ottawa BlackJacks before 6,642 fans in their regular-season home finale at Canada Life Centre on Friday appears to have done that for the Sea Bears, as they look toward their biggest — and final — contest of the regular season.

“Huge,” said Xavier Moon, who paced the Sea Bears with 29 points, adding nine assists and six rebounds. “Last home game. Obviously, we got to go on the road and handle our business in Vancouver, but we dropped the last two here, so we knew a win tonight would be huge for us going forward. And it’s the last home game before the playoffs, so I mean, we wanted to end it on a high note, and I feel like we did that tonight, regardless of how it looked like we played.”

The next time the Sea Bears will play at home is in the Western Conference semifinals on Aug. 6.

While this one was nice, the Sea Bears, who improved to 14-9, have bigger fish to fry when they travel to Langley, B.C. on Sunday (2:30 p.m. CT) to face the Vancouver Bandits in a regular-season finale, winner-take-all for the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs.

Winnipeg was playing a desperate team that was fighting to keep pace in the Eastern Conference playoff race. And while the BlackJacks — who dropped to 9-14 and will need to win their last game and get help to make the playoffs — delivered their best punch, the Sea Bears saw it through.

“I really liked the resiliency that we showed,” said head coach Mike Raimbault. “I think there were a couple times, especially in the first half, Ottawa made a significant run, and we were able to take a timeout and sort of weather the storm, and come out and get a couple of buckets and a couple of stops. Every time they made a run, we showed some resilience to make one of our own.”

The Sea Bears had struggled with fourth-quarter collapses the last two games, but found a way to dig deep when the lights were brightest on this night. They trailed by two entering Target Score Time, but went on a 12-2 run in the deciding period, thanks to six points from Jeremiah Tilmon Jr. and a pair of buckets from Moon.

Simon Hildebrandt took the Sea Bears home on a nifty hook shot near the rim — his second game-winner of the season.

“We stayed together,” said Moon. “These last couple games, I feel like we gave away possessions. Tonight, we were more cohesive going down the stretch. Guys weren’t making shots, but I feel like we all contributed to the win tonight, and that just shows the kind of team that we have. So I feel like from top to bottom, man, we’re good enough to beat any team in the league. When we’re playing like that, we’re playing at our best.”

Tilmon Jr. has made his presence felt in a number of ways this season, but it had been a while since he was able to exercise this kind of force on both ends of the floor because he has often been in foul trouble.

The big man played a responsible, high-level game on this night, which included a 22-point, 14-rebound double-double that may have been overshadowed by his seven assists and six blocks.

“I feel like no big in this league can guard him,” said Moon. “When he’s locked in on both sides of the ball, man, we’re a completely different team. And I tell him that every game: ‘We’re gonna play through you. Don’t worry about whatever else we got going on; everybody else gonna get their shots. I’m gonna make sure I’m getting that ball moving.’

“But if we’re playing inside-out with Tily and he’s showing this type of dominance, we’re a very hard team to beat.”

Hildebrandt chipped in with 12 points and eight rebounds, while Emmanuel Akot supplied 10 points off the bench. Teddy Allen was held in check most of the night, finishing with nine points.

The BlackJacks’ loss was a disservice to a tremendous outing for star guard Javonte Smart, who poured in 39 points while firing at a 62 per cent clip from the field.

“It was great that we were able to keep him on the floor for substantial periods of time,” Raimbault said of Tilmon Jr. “He impacted the game in so many ways. I said to him after the game that I was just so proud of the way that he played. He continued to be active on the glass even when the ball wasn’t finding him; he kept so many possessions alive for us. I mean, he changed shots at the rim. He blocked shots.

“His activity level was tremendous, and that’s sort of the level of play that we’re going to need from him if we want to continue to try to work towards postseason success.”

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