YORKTON - When the Saskatchewan Rattlers recently hit the court to face the Scarborough Shooting Stars it seemed like just another early season CEBL match-up.
But it would prove to be a record-breaking contest as Rattler guard Justin Wright-Foreman set a franchise record for most points in a single game.
Wright-Foreman collected 36 points, which set a single-game franchise record and was just five points off the all-time CEBL record of 42, which was tied earlier this season — also against Scarborough — by Winnipeg’s Teddy Allen.
The Rattler mark was nice, but a team win was nicer, offered Wright-Foreman in an interview with Yorkton This Week.
“It feels good only because we came out with the win. I don’t play for myself. I play for the team,” he said.
The Rattlers did indeed win 96-84, which was huge as Saskatchewan had lost by 42-points a night earlier, (June 3), to the Niagra River Lions.
Wright-Foreman said he might not have always hit his shots but added “my teammates trust me,” and that trust translated into “confidence to take the shots.”
Wright-Foreman said as the ball started going in it was a case of pushing that success.
“I tried to be aggressive,” said the six-foot guard who was drafted by the Utah Jazz with the 53rd overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft. “The game finally came to me. I had to take the open shots with confidence.”
That said, Wright-Foreman is not always a shoot first kinda guy.
“My job is to find guys when they’re open,” he said, adding at times though he will be the guy open.
And the ball started dropping through the net and quite accurately in this case the rest was history.
Since being drafted by Utah, Wright-Foreman has been one of those basketball nomads traveling wherever court opportunities take him including time with Chorale Roanne Basket of the LNB Pro A, the top-tier men's professional basketball league in France, with Brose Bamberg of the German Basketball Bundesliga, with Petkim Spor of the Turkish Basketball Super League, several NBA G League stops, and the Rattlers.
So far the CEBL has impressed.
“It’s a good experience,” said Wright-Foreman. “Everybody in this organization is just great people from top to bottom.”
Wright-Foreman did admit “I’d never heard of Saskatoon before I came here,” but added, “I’m having a blast and enjoying myself.”
