Dominique Dennis lifts BU Bobcats past Saskatchewan Huskies
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/01/2024 (608 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Dominique Dennis spent half the game on the bench, but the whole night in the Saskatchewan Huskies’ heads.
The veteran guard scored 19 points in 20 minutes, making one hair-pulling shot after the next as the Brandon University Bobcats men’s basketball team won their Canada West men’s basketball game 80-62 at the Healthy Living Centre on Friday night.
Dennis went 7-for-11 from the field and hit three free throws, beating his man and getting to the rim time and time again. Scoring hasn’t been his job that often this season, but the six-foot-three lefty from Brampton, Ont., makes the most of his touches when it is.
“It’s a game-to-game thing,” Dennis said. “One game it might be scoring, one it might be defence and the other it might be playmaking. That’s my role this year, to be a versatile player and do a little bit of everything.
“Credit to my teammates, they saw I had a role in today, they let me go and they let me play free. They let me play my game.”
The Bobcats (11-4) got to the rim with ease early, both in transition and in half-court sets. Eli Ampofo hit a pair of layups, then Sultan Bhatti laid one in before throwing a fast-break dunk down to lead 11-2.
When the Huskies (8-5) packed the paint, Ampofo and Dominique Dennis hit triples to push BU up 21-12 after the first quarter.
“Getting to the rim is important for us,” Dennis said. “It’s important to get to the rim, make them collapse on us and kick out for open threes.
“Once we get the three-ball going, it’s hard to stop us.”
Kymahni Bent came off the bench and sparked the Huskies with a few touch buckets to cut BU’s lead to 27-21, but the Bobcats answered. Ampofo hit a three, Khari Ojeda-Harvey drilled another, then Ojeda-Harvey hit Ampofo for an alley-oop to put the stamp on a 7-2 run.
The rest of the quarter was tight but Brandon pulled ahead 44-32 by getting to the line twice and making all four of its first-half free throws in the last minute.
Saskatchewan’s man-to-man defence barely gave the Bobcats an inch coming out of the break. The Huskies forced turnovers and cut into the BU lead with transition layups.
That inch of separation was all Bhatti needed, however, to make a pair of contested treys and restore the double-digit advantage.
BU led 52-44 for a while as both defences made life miserable for shooters. Then, Dennis banked home a low-percentage long two, breaking the cover off the rim. An 11-0 Bobcat run followed to make it 63-45 after three quarters.
“It’s good for the team to keep us afloat,” Dennis said. “I’m probably one of our guys that if you need a bucket, I can go get you one. Honestly, it’s what they ask me to do sometimes and that was the role today.”
Saskatchewan made one more push with a few scores early in the fourth, but Dennis snuffed it out, driving the lane and drawing a foul. He hit one free throw, then a step-back three to put Brandon back up 18.
That more or less took the air out of the gym. Brandon may have gotten tight on offence as Saskatchewan made a few runs, but relaxed and hit enough shots to prevent the night from getting more interesting than it had to.
“I told Eli with eight minutes in the game, if we win the next five minutes, we’ll be able to close out this game,” Dennis said.
“When you’re down 20 and you’re trying to come back the whole game, mentally, it’s tough. You could see it in their energy that it kind of quieted down.
“I said if we win the next five, from that point moving forward, they would kind of give in. We time managed well and we hit big shots.”
Ampofo finished with a game-high 23 points, making five of 11 threes.
Bhatti posted 15 points, 16 rebounds and six assists while Ojeda-Harvey had 12 points and nine assists.
Alexander Dewar led the Huskies with 13 points.
The rematch is today at 7 p.m.
BU VOLLEYBALL: Georgia Johnson had eight kills as the Bobcats women’s volleyball team lost 3-0 (25-21, 25-13, 25-17) to the Trinity Western Spartans in Langley, B.C.
Camryn Hildebrand led the Bobcats (1-16) with a .400 hitting percentage on six kills without an error.
Kaylee Plouffe topped all hitters with 15 kills for the Spartans (13-2).
The men’s match was still in progress at deadline.
The teams meet again tonight.
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