There鈥檚 no place like home, especially for the Vancouver Bandits.
The Bandits wrapped up the home portion of its regular season schedule with a 103-92 victory over the visiting Winnipeg Sea Bears on Thursday night at Langley Events Centre.
It left Vancouver with a 9-1 mark on home court, eight of those wins coming by double digits and a 20-point average margin of victory.
And it very well may be their final time in front of home fans, as they get set to embark on a three-game Eastern road swing to close out the Canadian Elite Basketball League regular season with stops in Brampton (Thursday, July 25), Scarborough (July 26) and Montreal (July 28).
Sitting in first place in the western conference with a 12-5 record, Vancouver needs one win in its final three games to secure second place while two victories would clinch top spot and the automatic berth to championship weekend in Montreal.
And in Thursday鈥檚 win over the Sea Bears, it was one of the newest Bandits players who was making his home debut leading the way as Mitch Creek scored a game-high 31 points and 11 rebounds.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a reason why he has the resume he has, getting paid the money he is getting paid. He鈥檚 a leader, a hell of a player... left-hand, right-hand, jump shot... you can鈥檛 stop him,鈥� said Vancouver鈥檚 Nick Ward.
Ward typically starts but came off the bench, finishing with 16 points, six rebounds, and three assists.
鈥淗e has played at the level that all of these players in the CEBL are trying to get to. Creek's leadership, his passion for his teammates, his willingness to do whatever the staff needs him to do, is absolutely incredible,鈥� added Vancouver coach Kyle Julius, calling him not only one of the best big men in the league, but also someone who can play the perimeter when required and hit his outside shots.
In his first three games in a Bandits uniform, Creek is averaging 28.7 points per game and he is converting nearly 65 per cent of his two-point field goals.
鈥淗is touch around the rim is incredible,鈥� the coach marvelled.
The game began with a back-and-forth first quarter with Winnipeg up by five points, before a 10-0 run gave the Bandits the lead for good. Ahead 25-21 after 10 minutes, they extended the advantage to 60-40 at the half and 82-65 through three quarters.
The Sea Bears did battle back to get the deficit down to seven points twice (including in target score time) as Vancouver went cold on the offensive end, finally winning when Creek secured an offensive rebound and passed the ball along to Taze Moore, whose floating jumper ended things.
Moore鈥檚 final stat line read 25 points, six rebounds, four steals, and a pair of assists, leaving him two assists shy of setting a new CEBL single-season record. The current record is 110.
Zach Copeland added 17 points and eight rebounds, while Kur Jongkuch got the nod in the starting five and finished with eight points and six rebounds. Duane Notice chipped in with five points, six rebounds, six assists, and a pair of steals.
The Bandits won the rebounding battle 50-32, hauling down 17 boards on the offensive end alone.
Despite a better showing in the fourth quarter and down the stretch, the deficit was too much to overcome for a struggling Sea Bears squad, which lost its fourth in a row to fall to 7-9.
They do still hold a 1.5-game lead over Saskatchewan (their next opponent) for the fourth and final Western Conference playoff spot.
鈥淚t was just a situation where we got behind and couldn鈥檛 dig out of it. But, let鈥檚 give credit to the Bandits,鈥� said Winnipeg coach Mike Taylor. He was referring to a second quarter where the Sea Bears struggled to score, generating just 19 points in that 10-minute period.
鈥淎nd this has been our trouble on the road where the game gives us some natural adversity,鈥� he said, referring to the team鈥檚 1-7 record away from Canada Life Centre.
鈥淲e did not execute and create good shots for ourselves, that gave them some transition opportunities and they got some easy baskets. We dug a hole," Taylor concluded.
