BCE

The 2023 CEBL Playoffs will open the same way the 2022 Playoffs ended: with a meeting between the Scarborough Shooting Stars and Brampton Honey Badgers.

The Honey Badgers broke the hearts of the Shooting Stars last summer in a thrilling season finale. However, Scarborough enters the Eastern Conference Play-In on Friday with home-court advantage at Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre at 7 p.m.

The game will be live on TSN and available for streaming on TSN+, CEBL+ powered by BetVictor and on the CEBL Mobile app available on iOS and Android devices.

Brampton and Scarborough have grown familiar with each other as the 2023 season progressed – the Shooting Stars hold a 3-1 advantage in four games this summer. Both teams played two of their final three games of the regular season against each other, including the regular season finale on Monday (July 31).

The Shooting Stars closed out the season with a 97-90 win over the Honey Badgers at home, snapping a two-game losing streak. Entering the game, the play-in matchup between the two teams was a known quantity with both playoff spots and seeding clinched.

Zeke Moore, Kyree Walker and Elijah Lufile powered the Shooting Stars to victory in the contest while Zane Waterman led the Honey Badgers with 20 points and 11 rebounds in defeat.

Brampton picked up their lone win over Scarborough last Wednesday (July 26) — a result that also secured a playoff berth. Shamiel Stevenson had a monster outing for the Honey Badgers in a 103-86 rout of the rival Shooting Stars. A late acquisition this season, Stevenson tallied 28 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and five blocks in the team’s most important game of the season to that point.

Following the win, Brampton was locked in as the four seed. The