Bisons punish Bobcats in paint, from deep

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This article was published 11/01/2025 (250 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Manitoba Bisons showed no signs of rust after more than a month away from regular-season action.

They did what they do best well — hammering the ball inside for 36 points in the paint —and their second option was even better. The Bisons (4-5) drilled 13 three-pointers to throttle the Brandon University Bobcats 88-51 at the Healthy Living Centre on Friday.

“We had lots of girls getting into the gym over the break … everybody worked really hard,” said fifth-year forward Emerson Martin.

“Number two, we also had some games over the break because we played in the Wesmen Classic. I know Brandon did as well … we got to play three games that weekend so that kept a lot of the rust off.”

The Bobcats (2-9) were certainly hoping for better after a 15-point loss to the Bisons on opening weekend, and an 80-62 defeat in the Wesmen Classic consolation semifinals.

“They just brought more energy than we did,” said Bobcats forward Jayna Maytwayashing. “They came out prepared for what we were going to do and we just need to play harder and we need to play tougher.”

Ayva Khan knocked down an early three-pointer and a nice floater to put Manitoba up 8-2.

While both teams struggled to shoot in their first game since the Wesmen Classic two weeks ago, the Bisons maintained their early lead by getting to the free-throw line and cashing in to lead 16-8.

The Bobcats clawed back by fighting their way to the line before Faith Clearsky drilled a triple to make it 16-15 Bisons through 10 minutes.

Paige Schatkowsky came off the bench and sparked Manitoba on a lightning-quick 9-0 run. She stole the inbounds pass and scored following a timeout, then hit a triple before her team added a pair of transition layups to lead 30-19 just four minutes into the second quarter.

Darya Rom kept the visitors rolling with two treys after Brandon’s second timeout. The Bisons opened up a comfortable 45-25 lead at halftime.

“We executed pretty good,” Martin said. “We were crashing the boards, trying to get ourselves second looks, also just looking for paint touches, getting the ball inside and letting our bigs go to work. If that wasn’t working, our guards were hitting shots all night so it worked out for us.”

Manitoba poured it on in the third with a 14-2 run. While Taya Clark hit a pair of contested runners for Brandon, U of M answered both to stay up 30-plus. The Bisons led 78-39 after three, not needing anything more to put it away in the final frame.

For what little consolation it’s worth, the Bobcats won a slugfest of a fourth quarter 12-10.

“We definitely did push through,” Maytwayashing said. “It was a hard one, obviously, but we were able to gather together and push through the last quarter.”

The Bobcats didn’t have a double-digit scorer. They shot 27.9 per cent from the field to Manitoba’s 40.5, making just five of 26 threes.

Anna Miko led Manitoba with 17 points while Martin added 14.

The teams meet again today at 5 p.m.

“This is going to pave the way for the rest of the season here,” Martin said. “We really are working on getting these two wins here just to propel us forward in a good way.”

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