Winnipeg Sea Bears pick up 1st win of sophomore season in front of sold-out home-opener crowd

Just a few weeks ago, it was all about the Winnipeg whiteout inside Canada Life Centre but like the changing of the seasons, the colour of choice inside the building has shifted to teal.

The Winnipeg Sea Bears played their home opener Friday night in front of just over 9,000 fans inside the arena, picking up a 109-106 win over the reigning Canadian Elite Basketball League champions, the Scarborough Shooting Stars.

"It is super amazing," season ticket-holder Alisha Bigelowsaid before the game. "The crowd's amazing, the players are amazing, it's like a whole big family here."

Bigelow also said the anticipation for Friday's contest had been building since the end of last season. She's so dedicated to the team, she even has the signature of former Sea Bears player E.J. Anosiketattooed on her arm.

"Today we had a round circle at our workplace and they were asking 'How do you feel?' and I'm like, 'I feel great because it's the [home opener] for the Sea Bears.'"

While Anosike isn't on the squad this year, another fan favourite, Teddy Allen, is.

The reigning CEBL most valuable player better known around these parts as "Teddy Buckets" picked up where he left offwhen the Sea Bears opened their season Wednesday against the Saskatchewan Rattlers, dropping 40 points in the game. As of Friday afternoon and heading into the home opener, there had only been four 40or-more-point performances in the CEBL, three of which came from Allen.

Allen did it again on Fridaywith another impressive performance,scoring 41 pointswhile dishing outsix assists and grabbing nine rebounds.

"I'm a huge fan," said Jennifer Jimenez. "I was thinking about it today and I think I am a Sea Bears ambassador at large."

Jimenez said she has a young nephew who also is enjoying watching the team, hoping to one day be on thecourt at Canada Life Centre, too.

"It makes it attainable," she said. "It makes something like the NBA or pro much more reachableit's not as far as the stars, but hey, it's in your hometown now."

The Sea Bears are now 1-1 and are looking to improve off their 12-8 campaign last year that saw them ousted from the postseason by the Edmonton Stingers last August. That game drew 10,580 fans, which was an all-time record until earlier this week, when over 12,000 spectators packed the Scotiabank Saddledome for a game between the Edmonton Stingers and Calgary Surge.

While Winnipeg does own a handful of the most attended games in CEBL history and set a league full-season attendance record of 65,609 last year, the ball is in the Sea Bears' court when it comes to topping the single-game mark again.

"I'm hopeful we will," said Sea Bears president Jason Smith. "Obviously we sold out this game pretty early and I think we're excited to work our way towards probably opening the upper deck again as we go through the season."

"And I'm going to say I'm cautiously optimistic that we're going to do it," he said. "But we'll see, we just want to get a few games under our belt, win some basketball games and have some fun and we'll go from there."

Meanwhile, fans like Bigelow are happy that professional basketball has tipped off in the Manitoba capital once again.

"I was a former high school basketball player, so, it's so exciting to have an actual team in your city."