Ottawa’s professional basketball team has solidified a spot in the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) postseason.
With two regular season games remaining, the Ottawa BlackJacks are tied for second-place in the CEBL’s eastern conference. The top four teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs.
After dropping six of the season’s first eight games left them outside the initial playoff picture, the BlackJacks have been one of the league’s hottest teams over the last two weeks, having won three of their last four games.
On Wednesday, the BlackJacks won on the road against the Montreal Alliance by a score of 87-83, clinching a top-three seed in the conference.
Led by forward Justin Jackson (Toronto, Ont.) and his team-high 21 points, the BlackJacks jumped out to a six-point lead in the first quarter, which they were able to maintain in spite of a late Montreal rally.
“Every time we play Montreal it’s a tough game like this,” said BlackJacks head coach Dave DeAveiro in a statement posted to the team’s website. “And to come here and beat them in this environment … it’s a really good win for us.”
Ottawa is set to host a rematch against the Alliance on Friday night at TD Place, and the BlackJacks will conclude the regular season by welcoming the western conference-leading Vancouver Bandits to Lansdowne on Sunday afternoon.
Tickets for both games are still available at www.theblackjacks.ca.
While Ottawa has already clinched a postseason berth, there is still a lot to play for over the final two games, as the CEBL’s playoff format features a play-in round between the conference’s third- and fourth-place teams.
Essentially, this means the top two seeds get an automatic spot in the conference semifinals. The winner of the conference semifinal series earns the right to participate in the CEBL championship weekend in Winnipeg later this month, which is where the conference finals and league finals will be held.
It’s mathematically impossible for Ottawa to catch the top-seeded Niagara River Lions, but they remain tied with the Scarborough Shooting Stars for that highly-coveted second spot.
Depending on where Ottawa finishes, the team’s first playoff game could take place either at home or on the road. However, the team recently announced that any potential home playoff games will take place at the Slush Puppie Centre in Gatineau because of scheduling conflicts caused by the Masters Indigenous Games, which will be held at TD Place next week.
“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,” read a statement from BlackJacks president Mark Wacyk.
“We will look for this opportunity that has been presented to us as a gateway of development beyond the borders of Ottawa.”
Initially founded in 2019, the BlackJacks have never won a CEBL championship.
