Winnipeg Sea Bears defy odds, surge into CEBL championship series

The Winnipeg Sea Bears entered the post-season on a hope and a prayer, but an impressive playoff run now leaves the franchise just two wins away from earning its first Canadian Elite Basketball League championship. The Sea Bears were dealt a tough hand on the eve of the playoffs when three starters were suddenly ruled out.

Left to rebuild the club's chemistry, the remaining roster rallied to win back-to-back playoff games to punch their ticket to the finals.

"We were missing a lot of guys, and even a lot of the announcers, I felt people were writing us off," said forward Simon Hildebrandt. "So we kind of went in there like, 'Hey, let's give them our best shot.' Nobody really believed in us but us."

Winnipeg now faces the Brampton Honey Badgers in what will be the first multi-game championship series in league history. The best-of-three opens Wednesday in Brampton at 7 p.m. ET, before shifting to Winnipeg for Game 2 on Saturday (3:30 p.m.) and, if necessary, Game 3 on Sunday (3:30 p.m.).

Sea Bears guard Teddy Allen, who is the front-runner to win the league's player of the year award, was hospitalized after a violent altercationat a downtown nightclub. Meanwhile, defensive specialist Jeremiah Tilmon Jr. and Winnipeg native Emmanuel Akot also left after signing contracts with clubs in Turkey and Mexico, respectively.

Without Allen, who led the CEBL with an average of nearly 28 points per game, the Sea Bears have had to retool their offensive attack. Much of the workload landed on Xavier Moon, a former three-time CEBL player of the year and two-time league champion who signed with Winnipeg this season.

"We're very resilient. When we're connected, we're a very hard team to beat," Moon said. "A lot of guys want to prove