‘He came in ready to work’

Welcome to Winnipeg, Isiah Osborne.

The Winnipeg Sea Bears newcomer arrived on Tuesday and wasted no time making his mark on Friday night.

Osborne, in many ways, was the catalyst on both ends of the floor in a 24-point, five-steal debut as the Sea Bears rolled to a 92-72 victory over the Calgary Surge at Canada Life Centre.

“I’ve been calling him the silent assassin. He don’t really say much, but he gets straight to it,” said Jeremiah Tilmon Jr., who has six points and a team-high nine rebounds.

“He came in ready to work. He just got here a few days ago. We welcomed him with open arms, and he’s just been getting to it. He’s locked in already.”

Osborne, who immediately drew into the starting lineup, played a game-high 36:10 and sealed the contest in Target Score time with a wide-open three-pointer.

It was a well-deserved finish for the 6-5 guard, who immediately gave Sea Bears fans a taste of what he offers. Osborne scored the first bucket of the game for the Sea Bears — a three-pointer — and then had a steal and score on the ensuing possession.

“I just try and go out there and play my hardest,” said Osborne. “If I hit some open shots, I hit some open shots, but I just try to pride myself on the defensive end a bit, try to get some stops, and I think offence will come with that.”

While Osborne is new to the Sea Bears, he’s a veteran in the Canadian Elite Basketball League, having amassed 49 career games between Edmonton, Montreal and Ottawa.

“He’s obviously a very experienced, high-IQ guy. He’s been a really effective player at a lot of levels for a long time,” said head coach Mike Raimbault.

“There’s so many little things that he did in the game tonight that won’t show up on the stat sheet. He just has great awareness on the court. There’s a number of times where he’s able to sort of take a look at the spacing on the floor, and maybe he makes a cut, and some things that he just sort of does innately that helps the rest of the group.”

Raimbault did not hesitate to inject Osborne into the starting lineup after a few days with the team. The bench boss planned for the guard to shoulder a heavy workload, and it helped that he delivered consistently.

“He’s such a smart player,” added Raimbault. “Obviously, he can guard multiple positions, and we know that he can create offence, both catch and shoot, and off the dribble.”

The Sea Bears fed off Osborne’s energy on a night the club struggled to get going offensively until the second half.

“I think it’s always tough trying to fit into a new team that’s been together already, but the guys have welcomed me in with open arms, and it’s a great group of guys, great staff,” Osborne said. “So I don’t think it was too hard, because it was a great entry for me. We just respect each other, and we just go there and play.”

While this was far from a free spot on the bingo card, the end result was Winnipeg capitalizing on a struggling opponent.

The Sea Bears improved to 5-4 on the campaign, while the Surge’s winless streak has extended to nine games to open the season, and the club is 0-2 under interim head coach Dave DeAveiro.

Teddy Allen scored a game-high 25 points, while Trey McGowens supplied 14 and Trevon Scott chipped in with 11 off the bench.

Despite going into halftime with a one-point lead, the Sea Bears had a clunky start offensively, firing at a 43 per cent efficiency and being five-of-19 from deep range.

The critical stretch started when the Sea Bears ended the third quarter on an 11-3 run to hold a 70-62 advantage going into the fourth quarter. Osborne scored the last seven points in the frame for the hosts.

Winnipeg rode that momentum into the final quarter and wound up going on a 19-7 run from the end of the third to the middle of the fourth quarter.

The Sea Bears carried an 82-68 advantage into Target Score time.

“It was just one of those moments where we just needed to lock in. We were in the locker room, we had to talk with Coach, and it was either we were going to fold and relax and let them come back, or actually keep our foot on the gas and work on what we continue to work on in practice, and stuff that coach tells us to do,” Tilmon Jr. said. “We got the good outcome for it.”

Calgary’s offence was led by Sean Miller-Moore, who had 17 points. The Sea Bears did an admirable job of containing sharp-shooting guard Evan Gilyard II, who finished with 15.

Winnipeg will look to add to the Surge’s slide when the two clubs go back at it on Sunday in Calgary at the WinSport Event Centre (5 p.m. CT).

“I think it goes back to the quality of some of the experience that we’ve garnered as a group, and it’s been very evident at times where we become casual or comfortable that teams take advantage of that, and it puts us in a tough situation,” said Raimbault. “I thought tonight the challenge was to have a greater level of urgency than Calgary, and for the majority of the game, we were able to do that. The challenge now is to put it together for an entire game.”

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