The top-seeded Hamilton Badgers captured their first Canadian Elite Basketball League championship with a 90-88 victory over the expansion Scarborough Shooting Stars in Ottawa on Sunday. Hamilton had lost in the 2019 and '20 finals. The win did not come easy, after nearly blowing a 22-point lead in the final minutes at TD Place.
Hamilton led 89-71, needing just one point to clinch the win in Elam ending, where the first team to the target score of 90 points wins. But Scarborough went on a 17-point run, nearly upsetting the No. 1 seed and making the championship come down to the final play.
Honey Badgers guard Caleb Agada, who was named Canadian Player of the Year, was fouled by Scarborough forward Isiaha Mike and sank his first free throw to clinch the championship.
There were 12 lead changes in the first half before Hamilton took charge. But Scarborough nearly came back to regain the lead, erasing an 86-64 deficit before falling short by two points.
Guard Koby McEwen added 16 points for Hamilton, and forward Agada had 12 points and seven rebounds.
Scarborough's Kassius Robertson had a game-high 23 points and six rebounds. Former Toronto Raptor Jalen Harris scored 12 points.
Hamilton jumped out to an early start, going up 11-4 in the first four minutes, but the lead changed hands 12 times in the first half before the Honey Badgers took charge.Hamilton held Harris to just two points in the first half. Harris finished third in the league with 20.39 points per game but was shut down by the Honey Badgers' defence.
Harris scored the Shooting Stars' first points of the second half with two free throws and a two-pointer. But Hamilton continued to outpace Scarborough, going up 69-59 at the end of the third quarter.
The lead grew to 22 points in the fourth quarter before Scarborough's near comeback.
"We did what we do every single game," said Schmidt, who last week was named CEBL coach of the year. "We're the No. 1 defence in the league from start to finish."