The Montreal Alliance look to secure more wins, to prove they earned their spot at Championship weekend
This year the 2024 CEBL Championship weekend will take place in Montreal at Verdun Auditorium, home to the Montreal Alliance. With Montreal already being known for its good vibes, and the city with never-a-dull moment, the highly anticipated weekend is set to be memorable with teams, fans, and media, all looking to see who will be crowned the 2024 CEBL champions.
The Montreal Alliance (4-13), although currently in last place in the Eastern Conference standings, have an automatic spot in the finals being the host team. The Alliance have struggled this season. After their 93-86 win on June 16th against the Scarborough Shooting Stars, they went on a 5-game losing streak with the team and fan base desperate for a win. The biggest frustration with the Alliance has been the fact that they have so much talent on their team, but could not seem to close out games and often struggled in target time. The Alliance who have been losing close games and not suffering too many blowouts, showed that they do have the ability to win games.
Despite their record, the team is filled with talent, including Ahmed Hill – a box office name for the Alliance. Hill is the first CEBL player to score 1,000 regular season points, a milestone that will remain in CEBL history. In true Hill fashion, he also was able to make two more three-pointers to reach 200 for his regular season and playoff career. Hill also ended the 5-game losing streak, putting on an incredible performance, dropping 31 points against the Winnipeg Sea Bears, giving the Alliance a much-needed 80-73 win. Chris Smith and Elijah Ifejeh also add to the talented roster of the Alliance with both big men coming off a well-played game on July 14th, despite losing 73-70 to the Ottawa BlackJacks in target time. Jordan Bowden, one of the Alliance’s top scorers left the team temporarily to play for the Atlanta Hawks at the NBA Summer League and is expected back before the regular season ends.
The Alliance traveled to the ends on July 16th to face the defending champions the Scarborough Shooting Stars, where they were not able to secure the win. Montreal’s Hill played against his longtime friend and former Guelph Nighthawks teammate Cat Barber. Both players are big box office names and leading scores for their respective teams. Barber was coming off a 34-point game for Scarborough, and he and player of the game, Jaden Campbell, led the Shooting Stars to the 91-71 win. The next game for the Alliance is on July 19th against Calgary Surge. Montreal will look to Hill to be the scorer he is known as, from all areas of the floor, in the paint, midrange and beyond.
Despite Montreal’s tough losses, the fans continue to support them and remain hopeful for a few more wins. Montreal continues to battle, wanting to show that they are not just at championship weekend because of the automatic spot, but they earned it, encouraging their fans to stick with them as they continue to learn each other as a team with the addition of Devonte Bandoo, Christian Rohlehr and Negus Webster-Chan. With five more regular season games for the Alliance, we will look to see if they can secure some more wins.
You can keep up with the Montreal Alliance at www.alliancemontreal.ca and on Instagram at @alliancemontreal. Tickets to their games can be purchased through their website as well as on Ticketmaster. You can also keep up with all things CEBL at cebl.ca and catch games live on the CEBL app. You can also keep up with all things basketball at onpointbasketball.com and on Instagram @onpointbasketball (Photo Courtesy of the Montreal Alliance)
