Wesmen bounce ice-cold Bobcats in semifinals

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This article was published 29/12/2022 (629 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — The Brandon University Bobcats nearly defended their way to the 54th annual Wesmen Classic final.

Even marginally better than their 4-for-22 three-point shooting would have been enough to spoil the home team’s run. But Winnipeg flipped the script and made 11 of 25 from deep to win 79-74 in the semifinals of the men’s basketball tournament at the Duckworth Centre on Thursday.

Six-foot-eight forward Donald Stewart did most of the damage, hitting five of six from beyond the arc for a team-high 18 points.

BU held U of W to 11 points in the first quarter but gave up 30 in the second before tying the second half 39-39.

“The guys competed fairly well,” said Bobcats head coach Gil Cheung. “There’s no excuses, that’s a really well-coached team and they got us again. It’s great for them. I’m cheering for them to win this Classic. It’s a huge deal … hopefully they can pull it out (tonight).”

Brandon got past Laval in Wednesday’s quarterfinals with just seven players. Khari Ojeda-Harvey and Jahmaal Gardner made it back from New York by Thursday afternoon and combined for 23 points and four assists.

“Physically I feel great, mentally I’m all right, just a little jet lagged but that’s the name of the game sometimes,” Gardner said.

“We battled throughout the whole game, definitely had some defensive lapses throughout the game but picked it up late fourth, got some steals, got some stops, just didn’t execute the way we wanted.”

Brandon got rolling with balanced scoring early as Ojeda-Harvey sparked the offence. He drove past three guys and flung a pass backwards over his head to a wide-open Sultan Bhatti for three, finished a steal-and-score and banked home a floater over six-foot-nine Mikhail Mikhailov as Brandon opened up an early 10-point advantage and led 19-11 after 10 minutes.

Stewart sparked the Wesmen offence in the second quarter with a few threes and Brandon lacked answers for Mikhailov in the paint.

Shawn Maranan nailed a 32-footer at the buzzer to put Winnipeg up 41-36 at the break.

BU shot just 13.3 per cent from three in the first half but forced 11 turnovers to stay in the game.

The third quarter was a defensive grind, with most of the scoring coming in the paint. The Bobcats left Maranan open after a screen in the dying seconds of the frame and he made them pay, drilling a wide-open trey to put the hosts up 59-52 with 10 minutes to go.

“He’s great. He definitely makes tough shots,” Gardner said. “It shows we got to work on our defensive pick and rolls and trying to deny the best player they have.”

The Wesmen stretched open their biggest lead of the night when Stewart and Paul Francisco nailed treys early in the fourth and Emmanuel Thomas kept his team up 12 with another halfway through the quarter.

A team that typically wins on defence and inside scoring suddenly caught fire and appeared to put the game to bed.

Well, a few chaotic plays changed that.

After a whistle with Winnipeg up 74-66, Stewart took a dribble and drove for a layup. The five-foot-eight Ojeda-Harvey gently put his arm out as Stewart went up for what would have been a shot worthy of a delay-of-game warning and somehow brought the big man to the floor. A skirmish ensued after Thomas pushed Ojeda-Harvey.

Eli Ampofo, who already had a technical, picked up an unsporting foul for pushing Thomas back. All three got unsporting fouls and were removed from the game.

“It was really simple, I see my guy get pushed, I’m going to be right there for my guy … I’m going to stand up for my guy,” Ampofo said.

“… If they’re going to throw me out of the game because of it, I’ll take it. At the end of the day, I look at basketball as a brotherhood. I’m going to have my brother’s back and if you’re going to gang up on my guys, I’m going to be right there for them.”

On the next possession, Magnusson shoved Mikailov three times on the way down the floor and the two received a double foul, ending Mikhailov’s night.

The Bobcats hammered the ball inside without Winnipeg’s best interior defender and chipped away with free throws to 75-74 Winnipeg with 17 seconds left.

But Francisco cashed in a pair of foul shots and Gardner dribbled the ball off his foot trying to corral a pass. Maranan put it on ice with another pair from the line.

Brandon went 13-for-19 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter but missed a few critical ones down the stretch.

“If we make our free throws we’re up, we win the game,” Ampofo said. “(My teammates) responded great, they were trying to battle back, getting stops, causing havoc … it shows how gritty and together our team are, for sure.”

Regina and Ottawa were still playing at press time in the other semifinal.

FREE THROWS: The Wesmen inducted men’s basketball players Ken Opalko, Jeff Foreman and Gord Tucker to their Ring of Honour before the game … Laval beat Algoma 71-67 and Alberta dropped Manitoba 83-55 on the consolation side … Regina’s Isaiah Bay, Ottawa’s Jacques-Mélaine Guemeta, Winnipeg’s Charles Goossen and Algoma’s Patrick-Olivier Mpoyi qualified for the dunk contest final, which takes place at halftime of the final.

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