Brandon’s comeback bid falls a shot shy

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This article was published 23/11/2024 (420 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Travis Hamberger hit two huge shots down the stretch but the one he missed made them easy to forget.

His desperation three-pointer fell short, as did the Brandon University Bobcats’ late comeback bid. They fell to 1-6 with a 72-69 loss to the Alberta Golden Bears (3-2) at the Healthy Living Centre on Friday night.

They overcame an early 22-point deficit but ran out of steam when they needed a little bit more.

“I’m very proud and the thing is truth be told, we find ourselves in this situation a lot. That’s not a good thing to be proud of but this is a group that I believe every single time we get in those slumps, we can come back,” Hamberger said.

“End of the third quarter it’s a tie game and it’s what we wish we had all game so in the fourth quarter we wouldn’t get as gassed and let little mistakes like turnovers get to us.”

A sluggish opening quickly turned ugly for Brandon and brilliant for Alberta. Both teams hit a few threes but struggled to score through the first five minutes, then the Golden Bears tore ahead as both benches got involved.

Alberta rattled off a quick 19-0 run as BU didn’t hit a field goal until Darko Karac drilled a buzzer-beater three to cut the deficit to 31-12 after 10 horrid minutes.

The Bobcats woke up in the second quarter, as the imports made their mark.

Dewayne Thompson hit a layup, then spotted up for a pass from Sultan Bhatti for a trey.

Jack McDonald, back from missing the last three games with an ankle injury suffered during BU’s win at Regina a few weeks ago, hit a jumper, then Thompson nailed another triple in transition. Just like that, the lead was back to single digits midway through the second.

McDonald was a liability on the defensive end, though. Alberta’s bigs punished the Australian as he piled up four fouls and headed back to the bench.

With Blake Magnusson sidelined for the night, former Neelin Spartan Max Winters played some of his most significant minutes of the season and held his own with four points, two boards and a pair of blocks.

The Bears still led 43-33 at the break.

Brandon started the second half with its best defensive effort of the season — maybe ever on the HLC floor.

Turnovers and rebounds on one end led to layups on the other as Bhatti, Thompson and Hamberger pushed BU on a 9-0 run. They would have taken their first lead since the opening minutes if Youri Cange finished a fast break with a layup instead of a dunk attempt he clanged off the back of the rim.

As the Bears finally broke their drought, lasting nearly half the quarter, the Bobcats did what they’ve done best for a few years now — let it rain from long range.

Karac, McDonald and Bhatti knocked threes down and BU suddenly went up 53-49.

The Bobcats trailed 56-55 entering the fourth but it felt like they were in control. The 2-3 zone defence they implemented for the first time paid dividends.

“We were playing how we wanted to play them, trying to get them to be shooters and it was working,” Hamberger said. “I don’t think they really shot the ball all that well so it worked out, especially being our first game playing it.”

Isaac Simon took over the game, at least for a while. The veteran guard hit a pair of tough pull-up jumpers, then picked off a pass and dunked it to lead 64-58 as Bobcats coach Gil Cheung called timeout with less than seven minutes to go.

Both offences went cold for a while, keeping the margin six before Hamberger made a strong reverse layup and Bhatti drilled a contested three as former Bobcat coach Barnaby Craddock called time with less than two minutes to go and a narrow 68-67 edge.

The Bears hit two free throws after Bhatti’s fourth foul, then the teams traded layups to put Alberta up 72-69 with 19 seconds left.

The Bobcats got a few looks from beyond the arc late but couldn’t get one to drop.

Still, Hamberger built confidence in his ability to score at the rim. More of a catch-and-shoot guy early in his Bobcat tenure, the Richmond, B.C., product hit all five of his two-pointers, almost always with a defender bearing down.

“I’m much more comfortable. My first couple of years it was panic, panic, I’m moving so quick I can’t think,” Hamberger said.

“Thanks to the coaches and playing all these games, collecting all the experience helps build confidence and be in control but also stay fast getting downhill.”

Simon led all scorers with 19 points while Bhatti netted 16 and Hamberger had 13 for Brandon.

While Simon shot just 6-for-18 from the field, he’s the guy BU can’t allow to get hot as they meet again tonight at 7 o’clock.

“It’s just ball pressure,” Hamberger said. “We saw little glimpses when we put elite ball pressurers like Jakarri [Lindsey] and Youri on him, he gets a bit flustered. It’s trying to make him uncomfortable every single possession.”

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