Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Engineering a stunning 15-0 run late in the second quarter, the University of Manitoba Bisons pulled themselves out of the fire and kept the MacEwan Griffins at bay the rest of the way for a comfortable 89-66 win on Friday night.
The result pushes the Bisons to 8-1 in the standings, while the Griffins (0-9) are still left searching for their first win of the Canada West men's basketball campaign.
"I thought we matched their energy level," said Bison head coach Kirby Schepp of how Manitoba overcame a 32-24 deficit midway through the second quarter, en route to a rout. "I think the biggest thing was they came out and played with tremendous energy, especially defensively. MacEwan's a very gritty, competitive group of guys. I thought they played harder than us early and they forced a lot of turnovers. We had 15 turnovers in the first half.
"I thought we settled down a little bit; in the third quarter we only had three turnovers. We started to get to our spots better and just settled in a little bit. We had a little more energy defensively and forced a few ourselves. It turned the game around a little bit."
On the backs of a terrific early-game work ethic, the Griffins led by eight midways through the second quarter before their offence dried up completely for an all-too-costly five minutes and 41 seconds of actual clock time.
"We didn't get good shots and we didn't get good looks and then we stopped playing defence," said MacEwan head coach Mike Connolly. "We have to score a lot from our defence, and we didn't do that."
By the time Jake Notice finally broke the drought with a three-pointer early in the third quarter, the Griffins were already reeling. They were then unable to stop further bleeding in a disastrous 10 minutes where they were outscored by 16, leading to a 23-point deficit that they couldn't overcome, even though they played Manitoba even in the fourth quarter.
"I thought they worked for most of the game," said Connolly of his troops. "They just had some lapses. Then we do some things where we shoot ourselves in the foot. They get some running layups and get some easy shots because we did some stupid things on offence.
"We had some breakdowns defensively, but for the most part our defence was pretty good. We forced 24 turnovers. There were sometimes, I don't know if guys are tired, but they lose their focus. And I think they're mentally weak right now and we have to toughen up."
Rashawn Browne led the Bisons with 22 points, while Isaac Miller-Jose narrowly missed a double-double with 16 points and nine rebounds.
"I thought it was all Rashawn offensively in the first half, which keeps us in the game, but isn't really healthy for us," said Schepp. "Now we're getting contributions from many people in the second half. James (Wagner) got a couple buckets early, Cam (O'Hara) started contributing, Isaac started contributing, Keiran Zziwa started making some plays. It was nice to see."
Abdullah Shittu led the Griffins with 17 points and eight rebounds, while Notice chipped in 12 points.
If they can take a positive away from the match it's that they forced 24 turnovers, one more than they gave up.
"When we were engaged and focused we did good things," said Connolly. "When we were relaxed and we weren't engaged and focused, we didn't do good things."
The teams will meet again on Saturday (7 p.m., Canada West TV presented by Co-op).
