Bobcats settle for split with Bears

The Alberta Golden Bears weren’t going to let any more records go down on Saturday, including their own.

They took the lead 90 seconds in and never relinquished it, beating the Brandon University Bobcats 97-83 in their Canada West men’s basketball rematch at the Healthy Living Centre.

“Back-to-backs are the hardest things in basketball, right?” said BU forward Arjun Hehar.

“We came out, punched first. This is a good team, they were one game away from nationals (last year), and they’re going to be a top 10 team throughout the season.”

The weekend opened with an all-time great performance as Munroop Gill broke BU’s single-game record for points in conference or post-season play with 43 in a 97-91 victory.

Gill scored 31 on Saturday, but Alberta contained the rest of the Bobcat offence well enough to win.

The Golden Bears (1-1) started Nate Waldron for Caiden Kushnir, who was disqualified from Friday’s game for two flagrant fouls.

They had a much better start both ends of the floor, as Kyle Varner, Izzy Helman and Jack Snead all hit three-pointers to help them pull ahead early. And they limited Gill to eight points instead of 18 in the opening frame.

Malik Brown drilled a three in the dying seconds of the quarter to cut Alberta’s lead to 22-19.

The Golden Bears stayed ahead most of the second quarter, though Gill briefly tied it 31-31 after an acrobatic layup, then a steal and score.

But Helman helped Alberta to a 9-0 run, then hit another three to put his team up 46-35 at the break.

In the second half, Brandon’s skill advantage wasn’t enough to overcome Alberta’s size. The Golden Bears hammered the Bobcats (1-3) in the paint, stretching their lead to 64-47 before Max Winters spotted up and drilled two threes.

Gill hit two layups in the last minute of the third but Alberta still led 70-59.

The teams essentially went shot for shot for the first five minutes of the fourth.

BU started forcing threes early in the shot clock to mount the comeback, but doesn’t have the same shooters it did a few years ago.

Brandon still trailed by 11 in the last minute when Kushnir picked up yet another flagrant foul, leaving his foot under Hehar when he attempted a three.

Gill and Bobcats coach Gil Cheung both took technical fouls in retaliation, and the Bears hit both free throws to keep the game out of reach.

“Vet group, experienced, bigger bodies. We’re one of the smaller teams in Canada West, even though we are the fastest. I think they just weighed us down a little bit,” Hehar said.

“It’s not just about post-ups. (Friday), we almost beat them in points in the paint. It’s about ball screens, those coverages on Isaac Simon, an all-conference guard. Those ball screens, the contact, bumps on cuts, it just fatigues you down the stretch and they just had better legs than us.”

Hehar finished with 14 points on nine shots.

Simon and Helman had 21 each for Alberta.

The Bobcats are off to Edmonton next weekend to face the MacEwan Griffins (0-4), in an important pair of games for BU’s playoff chances.

“In this league, anyone can get one,” Hehar said. “You just got to adjust, learn from the mistakes and try to get two.”

This Friday and Saturday, the BU volleyball teams host the UBC Thunderbirds.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com