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Ottawa’s hopes of hosting a playoff game are alive and well. The BlackJacks held off the Montreal Alliance for an 87-83 victory on Wednesday at Verdun Auditorium, ensuring they will finish in the top three of the Eastern Conference. Ottawa improved to 11-11 with the win, tying the Scarborough Shooting Stars for second in the conference. The Alliance dropped to 8-14 and will finish fourth before visiting either Ottawa or Scarborough in the play-in. For the BlackJacks, their latest win didn’t come easily. “Every time we play Montreal it’s a tough game like this. And to come here and beat them in this environment … it’s a really good win for us,” BlackJacks head coach Dave DeAveiro said. A tight contest throughout landed at 77-73 in favour of Ottawa when the clocks turned off for Target Score Time following a 7-0 BlackJacks run. The Alliance responded with a run of their own after the stoppage, building a 79-77 lead through a chaotic few possessions that included many missed shots and subsequent offensive rebounds. But BlackJacks forward Justin Jackson halted the run with a clutch three-pointer to give Ottawa the lead back. After a Montreal miss, Ottawa’s Isaih Moore then connected on a putback to put the BlackJacks back in control. After the teams traded buckets, Ottawa sat one three-pointer away from victory. And following a Kevin Osawe floater for the Alliance, Jackson delivered a triple once again on the game-winner. “This is just playoff basketball, man. I love playing in environments like this,” Jackson said in a post-game interview with sideline reporter Gabriela Hébert. “This is two great teams going at it. I love competition, my dogs were behind me, they were motivating me the whole game, so I just had to keep going.” Ottawa’s win marked its 50th in franchise history, including playoffs. But even despite its standing, a playoff game may not be coming to Ottawa. Due to The Masters Indigenous Games 2025 (MIG) from Aug. 14-17 at The Arena at TD Place, if the BlackJacks finish second and host the East semi, the game will take place in Gatineau, Que . Should they finish third, the play-in game — in which the Alliance are now assured of being the road team on paper — will take place in Montreal. For now, the BlackJacks and Alliance go right back at it in another meeting back in the nation’s capital on Friday. Then, they could meet for the third time in eight days during next Thursday’s play-in. And so Ottawa still has plenty more to play for over its final two contests. The victory in Montreal certainly gave the BlackJacks a taste of post-season atmosphere, intensity and momentum swings. “You’re gonna go through those periods where they’re really good and you have to stay together and keep fighting. And I thought we did that,” DeAveiro said. Jackson, the Toronto native, led the way for Ottawa with 21 points, including a pair of clutch Target Time triples, to go with five rebounds and four assists. It was his highest point total of the season. “I was just thriving in this gym. It’s a great environment to play basketball. … It’s chippy, it’s intense, it’s physical and I love that, bro. At the end of the day, I’m just gonna go out here and play as hard as I can and today shots were falling,” Jackson said. Moore posted a 17-point, 11-rebound double-double as he led the Ottawa charge in the first half. Forward Deng Adel nearly matched that double-double while putting up 15 points and nine assists, while Keevan Veinot passed 500 points for his career (including playoffs) with a 12-point performance. Javonte Smart, who entered the contest leading the league by a wide margin with 28.2 points per game, managed just 10 points on four-of-18 shooting. He contributed in other ways by notching five assists and five rebounds. Adel said his team has unfinished business after its playoff loss to the Niagara River Lions last year. “We keep coming back every summer and our main goal is to win it together. We have great camaraderie within the group and the coaches, the management, the president, they genuinely really want to see us win it. So for us that’s always the goal,” he said. Meanwhile, the Alliance fought mightily after falling behind early and trailing for most of the game, but just could not get the victory past the finish line. Now, they’re locked into fourth and face an uphill battle to return to Championship Weekend after playing host last season. Head coach Jermaine Small said his team leaned too much toward individual play in the loss. “There’s a delicate balance of emotions and guys, quite frankly, wanting to be the hero. I think when we play as a team, we play better, and I think when guys try to do it as individuals, we lose and we go unprepared into [Target Score Time]. So I think it’s just a matter of team ball vs. me ball,” Small said. Speedy guard Tavian Dunn-Martin scored a game-high 30 points in the loss while adding six rebounds. He left the game briefly at the end of the first half but returned in fine form for the second half. The Huntington, W.V., native connected on seven of 12 three-point attempts to keep the Alliance close to the BlackJacks throughout. Malcolm Duvivier added 12 points off the bench to go with five rebounds, while Osawe was the only other Alliance player to reach double-digit scoring at 11 points. Dunn-Martin said it was a competitive contest. “The difference between the two teams is not very much. They just wanted it more. We just gotta be hungry and want to win, so we’re just gonna take some hunger and go into next game and next week with it,” he said. Three-time CEBL MVP Xavier Moon was in the house for the game. The BlackJacks led 27-21 after the first quarter even as Smart failed to score. Ottawa continued to lead by six at 48-42 heading into halftime. Through three quarters, the Alliance had cut into the lead, but Ottawa still entered the final frame leading 64-62. From there, a tense back-and-forth — with both teams clearly understanding the stakes of the contest — ensued. Call it the first of many more still to come. Box Score https://www.cebl.ca/game?id=2682612 Up Next The Alliance and BlackJacks meet again on Friday in Ottawa. Next CEBL Action Every team is in action during a quintuple-header Friday, which doubles as the second-last gameday of the regular season. For the full 2025 CEBL schedule and up-to-date results, please visit cebl.ca/games . Interact with us on social media: Instagram: ottawablackjacks X: Ott_BlackJacks Facebook: OttawaBlackJacks TikTok: ottawablackjacks
The Ottawa BlackJacks of the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL), Canada’s largest professional sports league, announced Wednesday that should the club clinch the second seed in the CEBL’s Eastern Conference, they will host the Eastern Conference Semifinal at Centre Slush Puppie in Gatineau, Quebec, on Saturday, Aug, 16, at 1 p.m. ET. The move comes as The City of Ottawa hosts The Masters Indigenous Games 2025 (MIG) from Aug. 14-17, and the BlackJacks home court - The Arena at TD Place - is serving as a primary venue for the event. The CEBL’s Eastern Conference Play-In and Semifinal are scheduled for Aug. 14 and 16, respectively. “The Indigenous Games are incredibly important because they create space for Indigenous athletes to share their strength, their stories, and their cultures in powerful and visible ways,” said Mark Wacyk, President of the BlackJacks. “We recognize that, and hosting a game at a state-of-the-art venue like Centre Slush Puppie offers a unique opportunity to share our exciting brand of basketball with our fans in Gatineau and the Outaouais region. We will look for this opportunity that has been presented to us as a gateway of development beyond the borders of Ottawa.” Following their win over the Montreal Alliance on Wednesday night, the BlackJacks have secured at least third place in the CEBL’s Eastern Conference and remain in contention with the Scarborough Shooting Stars for second. The Alliance are locked into fourth place. If the club finishes second, they will face the winner of Scarborough-Montreal on Aug. 16 in Gatineau. All BlackJacks season-seat members will receive a complimentary ticket to an equivalent seat at Centre Slush Puppie for the playoff game on Aug. 16, while members previously settled playoff tickets for 2025 can be added as a credit to all 2026 season-seat member packages. Tickets to the game will be available later this week and communicated to all fans in a timely manner. If the BlackJacks finish third, they will face the Alliance in a Play-In game on Aug. 14 at Verdun Auditorium in Montreal. In that case, the BlackJacks will host a watch party for all fans at Jack Astor’s Bar & Grill in Lansdowne (425 Marché Way #101) ahead of the game at 7 p.m. at no additional cost. All 2025 season-seat members can receive a credit for previously settled playoff tickets this season which can be added as a credit towards all 2026 season-seat member packages. Fans can sign up for priority access to tickets for the potential playoff game at alliancemontreal.ca/en-ca/priority-access . The Centre Slush Puppie is the home of the QMJHL’s Gatineau Olympiques and previously housed the OHL’s Ottawa 67s in the 2003 playoffs when they were displaced from The Arena at TD Place due to the World Men’s Curling Championships. Interact with us on social media: Instagram: ottawablackjacks X: Ott_BlackJacks Facebook: OttawaBlackJacks TikTok: ottawablackjacks
The Ottawa BlackJacks of the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) face off against the Montreal Alliance at Verdun Auditorium tonight at 7:30 p.m. Both teams enter this game coming off of a loss to the Calgary Surge, and both have gone 2-3 in their last five games. While the Alliance played the Surge just two days ago, the BlackJacks have had a much needed two days off after playing them on Saturday afternoon. Finishing a stretch of playing six games in thirteen days, Ottawa was bound to be tired. With this time to recover their bodies, they should have the advantage in energy tonight over Montreal. “These are the dog days,” noted BlackJacks Head Coach David DeAveiro, “everyone’s tired, their bodies are sore, so just making sure that guys are healthy and have energy to play in these games is really important–thus the two days off.” That rest becomes extra crucial considering this game’s impact on playoff standings–these teams rank number three and four in the Eastern Conference with three games left to go in their regular seasons. The BlackJacks sit in third with a record of 10-11 and the Alliance two games behind in fourth at 8-13. The BlackJacks will move up in the standings with a win tonight, surpassing the 11-11 Scarborough Shooting Stars for second place in the Eastern Conference. Because Ottawa holds the tiebreaker over Scarborough (due to the BlackJacks winning the season series), if their records end up tied at the end of the season, they’ll take second place. That second place spot is crucial in the CEBL’s playoff format–which gifts two bye rounds to the first seed, one bye round to the second seed, and home-court advantage in round one to the third seed. This complicated process makes for a competitive end-of-season stretch, where every spot in the standings matters. As the BlackJacks push for the second seed with a win, the Alliance will also be pushing to win and potentially surpass them for the third seed. These two teams play back-to-back games against each other, one in Montreal tonight and one at The Arena at TD Place in Ottawa on Friday. Because the Alliance are only two games behind in the standings, they could theoretically surpass the BlackJacks with two straight wins. So, with playoff standings important as ever, this game is a must-win for both teams. With each squad fighting hard, tonight’s matchup will be a tough one to predict. Looking at their earlier games this season, each team has shown the ability to dominate the other. Back in late June, Ottawa and Montreal played each other for the first official time in the season (an outdoor game in May was declared a no contest), the BlackJacks dominated the matchup, winning 90-77. When the two teams met again on July 23, though, the script was flipped. The Alliance held a lead for the entirety of the fourth quarter and target time taking an 87-79 win. Coming into tonight’s matchup, Ottawa is focusing on fixing some of their key issues from that game. “We turned the ball over, and they scored a lot of points off of our turnovers.” said DeAveiro. The Alliance outscored the BlackJacks 24-18 in points off turnovers during the matchup, a difference that would have brought the game within two if nullified. Ottawa loves to pass as a team, ranking second in the CEBL in assists with 21.7 per-game. The unfortunate side of those high assist numbers is that, when faced with a good defense, they can lead to a high number of turnovers. Montreal’s defense, although middle of the pack statistically, was able to force Ottawa into 16 turnovers on the night, over two more than their season average. Although these little differences don’t seem to move the needle much at first glance, they add up over a game and greatly impact its result. Another thing that the BlackJacks have been focusing on is rebounding the ball. Despite ranking high in many of the league’s important statistics, the team has quite the weakness for crashing the glass. They rank second-last in rebounds per-game (38.0), and third-last in offensive rebounds per-game (10.3). The last time they played the Alliance, the BlackJacks were outrebounded 48-37 and were eclipsed14-6 in offensive rebounds. “Our Achilles’ heel–offensive rebounding,” said DeAveiro, “[The Alliance] are one of the best offensive rebounding teams in this league, and so we’ve got to take away some of the things they like to do the most.” Montreal leads the CEBL in offensive rebounding averaging 12.4 per-game. “They do a good job of attacking the glass, so I think we’ve just got to do the little stuff–like everybody blocking out,” said BlackJacks forward Deng Adel, “Making sure we secure the rebound, and then once we do that, we’ll be good on the offensive end. Just slowing them down in transition and not turning the ball over.” “Our focus has been on those two things. Really taking care of the ball, and making sure that we don’t give them second opportunities.” added DeAveiro. With those two changes in mind, Ottawa looks to head into this back-to-back stretch against Montreal with confidence and improve their record to 12-11. The feat would be the first time the team would have a record over .500 all season. Interact with us on social media: Instagram: ottawablackjacks X: Ott_BlackJacks Facebook: OttawaBlackJacks TikTok: ottawablackjacks
