Khalil Ahmad scored 17 points, and Nathan Cayo added 16 as the Niagara River Lions, the reigning champions, pulled off an 86-84 victory over the Scarborough Shooting Stars on Thursday, causing an upset in the CEBL Eastern Conference semifinals. The Shooting Stars, who held the top spot in the league with a 20-4 record, were without key players Frank Mitchell and Javan Johnson, who were suspended following their involvement in an on-court altercation with Brampton during the last regular season game on Monday.
In the other Eastern semifinal, the Brampton Honey Badgers emerged victorious over the Ottawa BlackJacks with a score of 95-91. Meanwhile, in the Western Conference, the Vancouver Bandits defeated the Edmonton Stingers 92-83, and the Winnipeg Sea Bears outplayed the Saskatoon Mamba with a 99-88 win.
All four teams will progress to their respective conference finals on Saturday, where they will compete in single-game elimination matches for a chance to move forward to the league final, a best-of-three series set to commence on August 12.
Fans can catch all the action on CBC Gem, CBCSports.ca, and YouTube.