Stingers ready to resume Basketball Champions League Americas play in Nicaragua

The CEBL champion Edmonton Stingers will find themselves in familiar territory this weekend: Nicaragua.

After travelling to Polideportivo in December to complete the first of three legs of the FIBA Basketball Champions League Americas (BCLA) competition, the Stingers carry their 1-1 record back to the Central American country for their next window of games. 

These contests, part of an league that brings together 12 of the best basketball teams across seven countries in the Americas to compete for a berth in the 2023 FIBA International Cup, were supposed to take place in Puerto Rico earlier this year, but were rescheduled over COVID-19 concerns.

The Stingers are grouped with Puerto Rico's Cangrejeros and Nicaragua's Real Estelí, the 2021 BCLA runner-up, in a round robin format that sees each team play one another three times in the span of three months.

The Stingers will play the Cangrejeros on March 5 and Estelí on March 6, both at 8 p.m. ET.

The Stingers will host the final stage of group play in Calgary at the WinSport Arena, where Edmonton will play the Cangrejeros on March 14 and Estelí on March 16, both at 9:30 p.m. ET.

Live coverage for all games can be seen on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.

WATCH | Get to know the BCLA:

Despite having home-court advantage taken away from them in January, the Cangrejeros are positioned atop Group A with a 2-0 record after edging out Real Estelí 91-88 and dominating the Stingers 89-68.

If the Stingers maintain a top-two spot in the group, they'll qualify for the quarter-finals in April.

Edmonton was led in scoring by New York native Trahson Burrell in the first two games, who averaged 18.5 points per game, highlighted by 20 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in the