The Niagara River Lions motto all season long was ‘Run It Back’ – and that’s exactly what they did Sunday night in Winnipeg.
The River Lions won their second straight Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) Championship with a 79-73 victory over the Calgary Surge.
Niagara finished the regular season an Eastern Conference best (14-10) earning an automatic bye to Championship Weekend.
Friday night the River Lions won a nail-biting thriller, 93-91 over the Scarborough Shooting Stars advancing to the final where they stopped the Surge.
“It feels incredible. It really does,” River Lions head coach Victor Raso said to cebl.ca “It’s as special of a moment as I ever had as a coach. This one, for these guys, it just cemented them. I’m really happy for them.”
Khalil Ahmad was named Finals MVP after scoring 16 points including the game-winning free throw, while adding nine rebounds.
“Redemption,” said Ahmad, who missed a free throw in the same situation in last year’s Final. “I thought about exactly that, [when] I made the first one, missed the second. I was like, ‘Oof, I can’t do that again.’”
The clutch free throws pushed Ahmad to his second straight Finals MVP and marked his fifth straight playoff game scoring the Target Score Time winner. He also knocked down the game-winning three in Friday’s East Final.
Raso had high praise for his star player .
“He’s the greatest player to ever play in this league and he’s just a phenomenal person, so he won’t say all the things that I say, but that’s the truth,” explained Raso.
Niagara captain Kimbal Mackenzie echoed Raso’s sentiment.
“[It’s] getting a little bit ridiculous at this point, quite frankly,” Mackenzie jokingly said. “When he hit that shot against Scarborough, I was like, ‘How many times is this guy gonna do this?’ He just has a knack for when those moments get big, just playing off his instincts.”
One of the sidebar stories to the River Lions victory was CEBL all-time leading scorer Ahmed Hill, who had never won a championship – at any level – during his basketball career.
“It’s amazing,” said Hill. “I’ve always been a player to want to score and get all the accolades, but this is one thing I always missed.”
Elijah Lufile wanted to win for himself to become the first player to ever three-peat; he also wanted to win for brother Meshack, a teammate who had never won before.
“That’s something we can tell our kids,” Lufile said. “We just stayed true to ourselves and our identity is guys giving 100 percent effort.”
Raso said all the parts came together to make a roster that was underrated by some throughout the season. Now, they’re champions.
“It took a while for this team to gel and find their rhythm. We have Ahmed Hill coming off the bench. He’s the leading scorer in CEBL history. That’s what bothers me when people talk about us this year the way they did,” Raso said. “This was a really, really good basketball team and when it mattered, we were awesome.”
Meanwhile, the parents of Chad Posthumus — a CEBL lifer and Winnipeg native who tragically died in November at age 33 — were on hand to present the championship trophy.
“We fought through so much adversity,” Ahmad said. “We deserved this win.”
Niagara joins the 2020-2021 Edmonton Stingers as the only teams to win back to back CEBL championships.
Rod Mawhood is a lifelong Niagara native who has had the pleasure of working in all three mediums – Radio, Print and TV – for over 20 years. His first announcing gig was with the then St. Catharines Stompers. Since then he’s worked in radio and TV in Toronto, and currently is the announcer for the Niagara IceDogs and Niagara River Lions.
Rod also covers the Buffalo Bills for FOX Sports and the Buffalo Sabres for NBC Sports.
