Bobcats extend win streak to seven

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This article was published 27/11/2023 (715 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon University Bobcats have a chance to get a massive early Christmas present next weekend.

They just capped a perfect home stand, extending their Canada West men’s basketball winning streak to seven with an 84-77 decision over the Trinity Western Spartans (1-5) at the Healthy Living Centre on Saturday. They close the semester at Regina this Friday and Saturday with a chance to hit nine wins, which is always enough to qualify for the 12-team playoff bracket.

“We took care of business at home, which was important,” said BU assistant coach Derek Barnett.

“Not a lot of rest, quick turnaround again and get ready for Regina next weekend.”

Khari Ojeda-Harvey turned in another dazzling weekend. He was just named Canada West player of the week and could legitimately repeat. He followed a 23-point Friday with 31 points, six rebounds and five assists.

As if the five-foot-nine guard stayed off TWU’s scouting report, Ojeda-Harvey scored at will early once again to put BU up 17-8. The Spartans pushed back to trail 20-16 after 10 minutes.

When they started covering Ojeda-Harvey tighter, he only got hotter. The Queens, N.Y., native added 13 points in the second, knocking down six of seven threes in the first half to lead 44-33.

“The scout’s out now but he’s just a highly intelligent player,” Barnett said. “He’s our motor, he gets us going and does a good job of getting us in the right sets and being able to exploit mismatches when they’re there.

“He’s certainly extremely valuable for us and we’re lucky to have him.”

Jack McDonald bolstered Brandon’s lead with two treys and two free throws before picking up his fourth foul and exiting the game. TWU made a mini run to close the third down 64-53.

Eli Ampofo hit two long balls — one from the volleyball attack line and the other on a between-the-legs pass from Ojeda-Harvey — to put Brandon up 20 and all but secure the win.

Or so it seemed.

Leif Skelding hit two threes and David Mutabazi got to the rim for a pair of layups on a 13-1 surge, cutting the deficit to 74-66.

The Spartans scared the Bobcats, coming as close as five points but Ojeda-Harvey and Dominique Dennis were rock solid from the charity stripe and avoided the possibility of a game-tying shot.

It doesn’t get easier from here against the nationally ranked Regina Cougars.

“There’s a few things to sharpen going forward and clean up,” Barnett said. “Certainly looking at our press-break action, looking to tighten that up a little bit, get the ball in the right guy’s hands and look to finish games off when we get the opportunity going forward.”

BU WOMEN KEEP IT CLOSER

In the women’s game, the Bobcats were tied at halftime and within single digits in the fourth before falling 80-65.

Reetta Tulkki had a team-high 18 points for Brandon while Jayden Gill dropped 20 for a 50-point weekend.

That was significantly better for BU than a 111-58 drubbing a night earlier.

“(Friday) night against Trinity, it had more to do about us and what we weren’t doing,” said BU interim head coach Jaime Taggart.

“(Saturday) the focus was doing the small things. We needed ball pressure, we put on ball pressure (Saturday). We needed rebounders, we rebounded (Saturday). We needed to talk and get rotations earlier (Saturday) and we did that.”

Cali Yates scored eight of BU’s first 10 points to avoid another treacherous start after trailing 21-3 early on Friday.

the Bobcats capped a 10-2 run to lead 24-22 when Emma Cameron found her sister Mya for a three-pointer.

They went into the second quarter knotted 24-24.

Brandon defended well and was the aggressor on offence coming out of the break. It got to the free-throw line and knocked down five singles to lead 33-29 midway through the frame.

The Spartans pushed back by getting to the rim at will for a few minutes but the Bobcats replied with a 7-0 run capped by another Mya Cameron triple.

They went into halftime tied 46-46.

The Bobcats hung around for most of the third before giving up the back-breaking 7-0 run to trail 66-56 going into the fourth quarter.

BU kept it around 10 points for the next five minutes but ran out of gas and only hit one more shot for the rest of the evening.

Still, the effort left Taggart in good spirits heading into next weekend on the road to Regina.

“The girls are looking forward to getting on the road and getting away from some of the distractions of their daily lives. We’re looking forward to it,” Taggart said.

“Trinity’s a team that beat Regina and we’ve seen it more and more, it’s anybody’s game. The focus for us is to show up. We have to be able to put two games back to back … it’s not good enough to just do it one night.”

FREE THROWS: Former BU men’s basketball player Rick DeGagne refereed his 1,000th university game on Saturday, serving as crew chief with his son, Matt, as an umpire in the men’s contest.

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