Cougars outrun Bobcat men

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This article was published 17/01/2025 (244 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One minute, the game was over. Suddenly, Sultan Bhatti had a chance to tie it.

Just as quickly, Kuach Gajak poked the ball away and finished the Mount Royal Cougars’ 77-72 victory over the Brandon University Bobcats at the Healthy Living Centre on Friday night.

Opportunities come and go in a flash in Canada West men’s basketball. For the Bobcats (3-10), this this was a missed one. They were right there all game but hit just 11 of 35 three-pointers and as a result, never led in the fourth after being ahead most of the first half. Mount Royal survived and improved to 9-4 after making just four of 24 from deep.

“We just gotta be able to make shots down the stretch. It can’t just be me and Jack (McDonald),” Bhatti said.

“It has to be everybody pitching in and making shots. If we can do that, we should have a good chance because I’ll be honest, Mount Royal, they haven’t played good competition yet. It should have been a win.”

While McDonald had a slow start to the season, he came out firing on Friday.

The Aussie knocked down a trio of three-pointers and a tough, contested layup for BU’s first 11 points.

The other guys followed suit, including Darko Karac off the bench with a couple of change-of-pace moves to draw fouls and score a quick five and open up a 21-13 lead.

The Bobcats gave up a few turnovers and let the Cougars run up and down the floor to make it 24-19 after 10 minutes.

MRU started the second on a 9-2 run, pounding the ball inside.

Bhatti regained his 2023-24 form when he was the top three-point shooter in the nation, knocking down all four he took beyond the arc besides a one-foot takeoff to beat a shot clock.

His quick 12 points kept it close but the Cougars’ 24 points in the paint helped them to a 42-36 edge at the break. “You should just give the ball to the hot hand. First quarter, Jack was hot, just keep giving him the ball. Second quarter, I was hot, keep giving me the ball,” Bhatti said. “We’ve got a new squad and everybody was trying to score so it’s harder for them but I feel like if they knew what to do, we’d have a good chance of winning.”

Mount Royal stayed up six halfway through a slow third quarter.

For the last three minutes, Brandon locked down on defence and tied it 53-53 on layups by Karac, Nathan Saldo and Bhatti.

The Cougars’ length on defence was the difference in the fourth. They got into passing lanes and forced a handful of turnovers leading to points that were hard to come by all half. They led 62-56 with four minutes to go.

Rookie DJ Roberts drilled a big three and Sam Barnie added a transition layup to go up 67-58. But Travis Hamberger replied with a three-point play and steal on the ensuing inbound as Brandon clawed back within five.

Both teams spent the next few minutes at the free-throw line as neither did much to change the gap.

Down eight, Jakarri Lindsey banged two contested threes in the last minute to give BU unexpected life but it fell a possession shy once again.

“The first quarter was good, second was not too bad. I feel like if we correct our turnovers, grab more rebounds — because they killed us on offensive rebounds — then we have a better chance,” said Bhatti, who finished with a game-high 20 points and 15 rebounds.

“It’s like I was telling the guys, me and Jack are doing a good job boxing out, you guys as guards can’t just be looking at us. You guys have to pitch in too because everything was going long so it’s your guys’ job to go grab it. If guys do that, crash, we should be good.”

Bhatti went 6-for-18 from the field and missed all five threes he took in the second half.

McDonald finished with 17 points on seven shots.

Barnie led MRU with 18 points while the visitors had 21 fast-break points to Brandon’s three.

The teams play again tonight at 7 o’clock.

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