Despite dropping their home opener to the Hamilton Honey Badgers at the Sleeman Centre Friday night, it was a good news kind of day for the Guelph Nighthawks.
Best news of the day came earlier in the day that the Canadian Elite Basketball League team would be allowed to have up to 1,000 spectators at their home games starting July 19.
“That's going to be so good,” Nighthawks general manager and head coach Charles Kissi said shortly after his team suffered an 85-76 loss to the Hamilton Honey Badgers in a game in which Kissi was unappreciative of the efforts of the refereeing crew. “Two years without fans, it's going to be so nice to have the crowd in here again -- the sixth man and we won't feel like we're playing eight on five.”
“That's going to be exciting,” said 6-foot-9 centre Chad Brown. “I can just picture it now, the atmosphere here can be amazing. I think we have a great fan base here. It's my first time playing here, but I can just tell with all the support and stuff that we have here. I'll be excited to play with fans.”
The return of spectators in less than two weeks’ time means the Nighthawks will have people in the seats at five of their seven home games this season with only Friday’s game against Hamilton and a match Monday against the Ottawa BlackJacks (1-4) being their lone spectator-free home games this season.
Another good news item Friday was the debut of Brown. He started and had 11 points in just over 26 minutes after spending a two-week quarantine in Stoney Creek where the Nighthawks are housed this year.
“The quarantine, it's not fun for nobody. I tried to keep myself busy and do in-home workouts and things like that. (There was) a lot of Netflix and things like that, too,” Brown said. “It feels good to be back on the court. I know now I've just got to get my wind under me a little bit. Fatigue kicked in on me down the stretch, but once I do that I think I'll be able to do really well in this league.”
Florida native Brown had to quarantine after arriving in Canada following a stint in the German Basketball League. In his debut Brown was in the middle of the action on the court as he was fouled four times and took three fouls.
“I didn't know this league was going to be as physical, but I love it,” he said. “That's the way I play anyway so I think it suits me well. I think I've just got to get my conditioning a little bit better, I was a little fatigued going down the stretch.”
Friday’s loss was the fourth in as many outings this season and Guelph’s third in a row against Hamilton. With the 2020 season taken into account, it was the eighth consecutive setback for the Nighthawks.
“We're playing for August right now,” Kissi said. “We're trying to win a championship and it doesn't have to come in the first four games of our season.”
The win was the fifth in a row for the Honey Badgers who haven’t lost since dropping their season opener to the defending champion Edmonton Stingers, the league’s lone unbeaten team at 4-0.
“There's a lot of positives that are happening. I think we're playing well,” Kissi said. “The Ls don't tell the story. I think we're playing better than our record. Not that we're underachieving, we're just not quite able to get over the hump and I think we will. Our guys are working and they're in the right state of mind and no one's depressed or anything.”
Top six in the seven-team league qualify for the playoffs. The Nighthawks (0-4) and Saskatchewan Rattlers (0-5) are the lone winless squads in the league.
Monday’s game is to start at 7 p.m.
