That was definitely not how the Sea Bears wanted to have their regular season finale go. As I had predicted in my previous article, it was a scrappy, paint driven game that had some offensive flashes, but was more defensive than the score would suggest. Winnipeg battled adversity the entire night, whether it was from the Stingers, who kept countering every run the Sea Bears went on. Or it came from the officiating at times, which forced coach Mike Taylor to make some adjustments to his rotation. As much as there were other reasons that Winnipeg lost this game, the most obvious was the lack of shot making overall. Was Jelani Watson-Gayle’s absence a factor? Absolutely. But the volume of perimeter shots that the Sea Bears put up against the Stingers zone, they really could not get anything to fall. Before I get too far away from this quick recap, and make it longer, let’s get into the three important keys from game number 20.

Stingers Zone

I think I have finally found the reason why this Edmonton team is so streaky, when it comes to their wins and losses. We’ve seen it in the previous two matchups, where the Stingers roll into a zone for most possessions against the Sea Bears. I cannot say for certain if this is just an adjustment they go to when only playing Winnipeg (I have not watched enough other Edmonton games), but especially when the lineup that’s trotted out by the Sea Bears is lacking perimeter shooting, the Stingers pull out that zone. It was used more so once Simon Hildebrandt had been ejected from the game, but it did the trick to stall Winnipeg just long enough. The reason I say this is why Edmonton has been so up and down, is not because this zone is not good. It genuinely just comes down to how other teams shoot the ball against them. A zone is used to make teams who don’t shoot well from the perimeter, to take jump shots. Even though the Sea Bears on paper are a good shooting team, it mostly comes from Teddy Allen, E.J. Anosike (on occasion, and low numbers of attempts), and Watson-Gayle. You eliminate Watson-Gayle from the equation, and that leaves you with the other two, a struggling A.J. Hess, and Glen Yang who hasn’t taken or made a good number of threes. Plus, Winnipeg only has one stretch four, and he got ejected in the third quarter. Not a great situation to be in when a team who is as good defensively as the Stingers are, to roll out a zone. Coach Taylor made it clear in the postgame interviews, he needed to make sure that his team wouldn’t settle for jump shots on too many possessions, and find ways to get easy scores against the zone. As much as they went to Anosike early in every single quarter, they always seemed to get away from that, and start to settle. It seemed that all players and coaches were aware of what needed to be fixed before Friday’s playoff rematch.

Mental Mistakes

This section is going to be a little shorter, and more pointed. More than just the simple errors of Allen running out of bounds, and Hildebrandt getting two unsportsmanlike fouls, there were other mental errors the Sea Bears made. Whether it be shot selection, or not viewing the court well, it felt at times that certain Winnipeg players were struggling with the moment that was at hand. We will see if that is still the case come Friday, with the stakes even higher.

Paint Defence

I didn’t want this entire important keys segment to be negatives, so I thought I would throw in this third key about the Sea Bears paint defence that was more positive. As much as there were times in which the Stingers got through the Winnipeg defence (particularly Aher Uguak), or scored over defenders, most shots in and around the rim were contested. I will also single out Shane Osayande as a singular reason for that, but who also deserves credit is Stephane Ingo. Whoever came into the paint had to make a difficult shot most of the time, which is all you can really ask. But it does also help when Osayande collects five blocks, all of them very impressive.

Now that we have gone through the three important keys, time to get to the individual performances.

Photo from: Kyle Thomas

Simon Hildebrandt

I have to start with Hildebrandt after what transpired during the game. He did not start, but he was apart of what could be said to be the most controversial moment the entire 2023 season for the Sea Bears. This moment came at the three minute mark of the third quarter. This was Winnipeg’s best quarter, and stretch of the entire night by far. Just around the top of the three point line, you can see from the broadcast view that Hildebrandt has his hand on Nick Hornsby as he tried to cut to get open. Hornsby, understanding the situation, and being a veteran, gets Hildebrandt’s hand/arm hooked underneath his, making Hildebrandt have to try and shake out of it. It is clear to me that he hits Hornsby’s body with the shake, but it even looks like he even did grab his jersey. As Hornsby cuts to get open, he sells the foul slightly by flailing a little bit, and it makes it look worse than it was. Instantly as Hornsby jerked, the referee called the second unsportsmanlike on Hildebrandt. The first one that he received was definitely deserved, as he grabbed the jersey. This one? I am not sure. He should not have put himself in that situation in the first place, but Hildebrandt also got the short end of the stick. Coach Taylor used his challenge to try and reverse the call, but the officials did not spend much time looking at the replay. It seemed like they had made up their mind. While in the ten minutes Hildebrandt had played until that point, he had not made much of an impact, his ability to stretch the floor was definitely missed by the Sea Bears for the remainder of the game. When these two teams go at it again on Friday, Hildebrandt needs to play smarter, and be available if coach Taylor is needing to call his name.

Teddy Allen

It was a slow start for Allen in this one. It took all the way until halfway through the third quarter for him to really get going. As much as I want to say his slow start hurt the team, he was still able to put up 33 points. That slow start may have also been caused because of Allen being deployed as the main point guard for the night. Either way, MVP going to MVP.

E.J. Anosike

Just another very good, solid game from the New Jersey import American. It really felt like the Sea Bears gameplan to beat the zone was get post touches for Anosike, and let him go to work. While every single beginning of all four quarters went that way, the team kept shifting their focus to trying to shoot their way out of the zone. Postgame, it seemed like the players, and especially coach Taylor were aware that that was their gameplan, and they needed to stick to it, or even adjust when needed. Cannot complain about Anosike’s performance, he and Allen were the reason that Winnipeg even went on that surging third quarter run like they did.

Shane Osayande

I knew this guy could rim protect, but my goodness did he have a field day. While his shot blocking was more than impressive, and his rebounding was as good as it has been, he has no answer on how to guard Brody Clarke. Clarke toyed with him every single time he get a touch, and Osayande just could not hold back on biting on any fake Clarke threw at him. Osayande needs to clean that up for Friday’s game, because to me Clarke is the most important player on the Stingers roster. Osayande and the Sea Bears need to hold him in check. Overall though, the best performance Winnipeg has gotten from Osayande and it is a shame it comes in a loss.

Glen Yang

I want to begin by saying, Yang looked much more aggressive than normal in this one. While it may have been because Allen was taking over point guard duties, it was still noticeable. Did it translate to anything? Well…yes, but not very positively. When you shoot 12 times, and make one, I think you need to just stop and say it’s not your night. There was someone else that I have similar feelings about. Other than taking a lot of shots, I will say it was nice to see Yang be aggressive. I just hope if he keeps that mentality, that it turns into more made shots. But I have a good feeling this was because Watson-Gayle was not available, so we will see what his role becomes of Friday.

A.J. Hess

Look, I understand that Hess is having an abnormally bad stretch. I also get that the season is only 20 games, so it’s hard for a shooter to turn around his form quick enough to get back to shooting better. But man, did he ever just chuck them up in this one. We have seen from Hess that just continuing to shoot is not going to break him out of this cold season he is having, so I am not sure why he keeps doing it. It is really starting to hurt this team and how a bunch of their possessions end. It felt like against the Stingers in this one, if you gave the ball to Hess it was a black hole. That was ball was not coming back, unless you grabbed an offensive rebound. Being a shooter myself, I understand that when you are in a cold streak, it’s frustrating. You can clearly hear and visibly tell Hess is frustrated. I used to act in the same ways he is right now. But the best advice I ever received from someone was, as good as doing those things alleviates the frustration at that moment, it only helps you get more into your head. From his body language, and use of words, you can tell Hess is in his own head. If he wants to help this team out down the stretch, he needs to find a way to clear his head and have a more positive mindset.

Stephane Ingo

While the only two stats Ingo recorded was a block and three fouls, his paint protection was good. We knew that it was going to be his calling card, but I had hoped he could grab a couple rebounds as well. Though in playing around 10 minutes and having a good impact defensively is good enough for me.

Tyler Sagl

As soon as Hildebrandt was ejected from the game, this was Sagl’s opportunity to grab some minutes. Unfortunately he did not make much of an impact, unless you call missing a three, and throwing a really bad pass that made All lose his mind, he was just running out there. Sagl in my eyes has had some really good moments this year, and it would have been nice to say that this was another one of them.

Chad Posthumus

This was not the matchup for Posthumus, and it still won’t be when these two teams play again on Friday. He played four minutes, put the ball in the bucket once, and that was about it. I would very much expect that he will not get much run in the rematch.

Michael Okafor

He played 32 seconds. I’m not really sure what else you want me to say, or to dissect from that.

Photo from: Kyle Thomas

Final Thoughts

This was not the best performance from the Sea Bears we have seen this season. Nor was it the worst. Winnipeg was in that game for the most part, and was led while having some momentum. Not having Watson-Gayle to begin with, then losing Hildebrandt hurt their chances against the zone. The good news is that Hildebrandt will be available for the next game, and we were told by coach Taylor postgame that Watson-Gayle would be ready to go. This was simply a measure of protection and rest. The Sea Bears this week in practice need to go over ways of beating that zone, and find a good balanced gameplan that’ll beat this Stingers team. So, did they lose because they were outplayed? Yes. Were they also missing their 6th Man of the Year candidate and then lost their promising U Sports player in silly fashion? Also yes. Having those two guys I think moves the needle enough for me to say that Winnipeg wins this one if both are on the floor. It also means I think that the Sea Bears have a good chance Friday to move onto Calgary and play the Surge. But as I mentioned before, it is going to take some good planning from coach Taylor, because talent isn’t just going to win you this game. You are going to have to get it out the mud.