Everything you should know for the CEBL's championship weekend

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By Sunday, a first-time Canadian Elite Basketball League champion will be crowned.

An all-Ontario final four — pitting the Niagara River Lions against the Scarborough Shooting Stars, and the Hamilton Honey Badgers against the Ottawa Blackjacks — begins on Friday in Ottawa, with the winner of each meeting in Sunday's championship game.

The Niagara-Scarborough contest is available live at 4 p.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem, with a replay airing Saturday at 2 p.m. ET on the CBC-TV network. The Hamilton-Ottawa game is live across all four platforms tomorrow at 7 p.m. ET, while the final will also be made available live across all platforms on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET.

The 2022 season — the CEBL's fourth — marked a step in a new direction for the league. It grew from seven teams to 10 with the additions of Scarborough, Newfoundland and Montreal. It welcomed more international talent than ever before, adding a designated spot for a non-Canadian, non-American player on each roster. It saw three-time reigning MVP Xavier Moon graduate to the NBA. It even saw rapper J.Cole play five games with the Shooting Stars, while Canadian music star Drake wore league merchandise in a music video.

Now, the championship trophy is headed east after the Saskatchewan Rattlers won the inaugural title in 2019 and Moon's Stingers claimed each of the next two.

WATCH | CBC Sports' Vivek Jacob previews CEBL championship weekend:

Here's everything else you should know for championship weekend:

The Honey Badgers and River Lions should be favourites. The only two of the league's "original