The Niagara River Lions continued to build their roster for the 2025 Canadian Elite Basketball League season with three selections in the league’s annual draft.

Niagara took Gatluak James ninth overall from St. Francis Xavier University, Charles Robert 12th overall from Bishop’s University and Thierry Tshibola 29th overall from Brock University.

James, a 6-foot-6 guard from Windsor, has averaged 7.1 points and 5.0 rebounds in 15.5 minutes per game over three seasons at St. FX. Last season, he played five games in the CEBL with the Calgary Surge and averaged 2.8 points and 2.8 rebounds per game.

“He is a four man who is an excellent rebounder. He’s very strong and he does a lot of winning things. He has good feel and he can take advantage of matchups in the post,” River Lions head coach/GM Victor Raso said. “He will play the role Jordan Tchuente has played for us the last few years and the added bonus is he played in the Final Four last year and played meaningful minutes.”

Robert, a 6-foot-8 forward from Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., is coming off a season at Bishop’s where he was a U SPORTS First-Team All-Canadian, Bishop’s male athlete of the year and his team’s MVP. He averaged 15.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game while shooting at a 50 per cent clip.

“He is a very talented offensive player and was with us in training camp last year. I actually tried to keep him around a little bit longer but it just didn’t work out,” Raso said. “I have quite high expectations for him. He will be with Eddie (Ekiyor) and Elijah (Lufile) right from Day 1 of training camp and he is a good basketball player. He was the MVP of the Quebec league this year and took his team to nationals so I hold him in pretty high regard.”

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