River Lions strike early, often in dominant victory over Honey Badgers

The Niagara River Lions have entered the chat.

Niagara came out with a vengeance against their Ontario rival Brampton Honey Badgers on Thursday, forcing the issue early and often en route to a resounding 103-60 victory.

The River Lions stormed to a 15-2 lead early in the first quarter and never looked back during their home opener at the Meridian Centre. To put icing on the cake, they scored the first seven points in Target Score Time, too.

The River Lions, who entered the season among the championship favourites, opened their 2024 campaign with a 74-67 loss to the Honey Badgers on Friday after winning all three of the teams’ contests last season.

For the past six days, then, they’ve been sitting on that defeat in which just two starters scored more than two points. 

“Last game was like a pre-season game for us. We found out that we can be very good defensively. We found out that we had clarity issues on offence. And then we just addressed them. We worked really hard over the course of the week,” said River Lions head coach Victor Raso.

“It’s validating for the guys to have a bounceback like that because we felt like we left a lot on the table in the first game.”

On Thursday, Niagara flipped the script and looked the powerful part for which it’d been prognosticated, improving its record to 1-1. Scarier still for the rest of the league, the River Lions continue to await the return from overseas of 2022 MVP and Clutch Player of the Year Khalil Ahmad.

Brampton fell to 2-1 with the loss.

Omari Moore, a G Leaguer with Raptors 905, was named Player of the Game after sharing the River Lions’ team lead of 18 points while adding eight assists. 

“I think tonight we came out with a different level of intensity, a different level of aggressiveness. We had a couple hard days of practice and we really wanted to come out and play our brand of basketball,” Moore said.

Fellow starter Aaryn Rai also scored 18 points, while Antonio Davis Jr., added 16 to put him at 504 for his CEBL career.

“That means a lot,” Davis Jr., said. “I love playing here in the CEBL, so for this to be my third summer and to have 500 points is just an honour. This is a great league and it’s really building and growing and I just love that I’m a part of it.”