BU women fall shy of huge upset
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/01/2025 (244 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A top-15 team in Canada met a bottom-five one at the Healthy Living Centre on Friday.
For most of their Canada West women’s basketball game, it was nearly impossible to guess which was which.
The Brandon University Bobcats took the No. 15-ranked Mount Royal Cougars down to the final minute, falling 72-67 on one of their best evenings of the season.
Madison Schettler shoots against the Mount Royal University Cougars at the BU Healthy Living Centre on Friday evening. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)
“It was really exciting, was really happy for our girls because we were hitting our shots, we were making good plays, we were moving the ball, playing good defence,” said veteran guard Faith Clearsky, who finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.
“It really came from what happened last weekend. We obviously thought we could win that game (against Manitoba), 100 per cent. Being beat just lit a fire in our butts.
“We were practising pretty hard throughout the whole week so we just tried to bring that into (Friday’s) game and it showed.”
The Bobcats (2-11) pushed the ball inside early and succeeded on a 6-0 run while the Cougars (8-5) settled for errant three-pointers.
While Brandon scored as well as it has all year for the first five minutes, a pair of Maddy Hooper treys kept it close.
Then came the McLeod show. The American knocked down a few long twos, a three a pair of layups and four free throws for a huge 15-point quarter to put BU ahead 27-17.
“She’s a really good player all-around so she had a lot of confidence today,” Clearsky said.
“She’s a big leader on our team and she really pulled through today with her shots, her layups, being aggressive on offence and defence.”
After a few empty possessions in the second quarter, McLeod subbed back in and knocked down a 27-footer to beat the shot clock and go up 13.
Brandon led 32-18 before Hooper ignited an 8-0 run with six minutes left in the half.
MRU upped its intensity on defence in the second quarter, leading to more frantic decisions and fewer open looks. The result was just eight points for BU and a narrow 35-33 edge at halftime.
McLeod took her third foul with 20 seconds left in the first half and started the second like she had none, flying in to swat a would-be easy layup. She hit a floater on the other end to start a tension-filled trading of buckets for the next eight minutes.
The Cougars finally took the lead 51-50 with 90 seconds left in the third after a string of stops, then Nora Luca hit a triple to go up four before Madison Schettler dropped a floater to narrow the gap to 54-52 heading into the final frame.
Mount Royal started the fourth on a 5-0 run before Piper Ingalls drilled a three, then another, then a jumper to keep pace with a hot MRU team that started finding soft spots in BU’s interior defence.
Faith Clearsky takes a contested shot as MRU’s Jamie Lalor attempts to block. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)
Down 63-60, Ingalls pulled up off a screen and knocked down yet another three while being knocked down herself. She completed the four-point play to pull back ahead with four minutes remaining. The senior guard ended up with 18 points, 12 in the fourth.
“I’m proud of Piper,” Clearsky said. “Piper’s coming a long way with that in her game, coming on the floor, having her little moments of heat and rather than switching off, she’s been turning it on.”
However, Luca gave MRU the critical two-possession lead with two minutes to go. She scored with contact from Clearsky, then missed the free throw but drew another foul after the Cougars secured the offensive rebound, sinking both.
Clearsky replied with a big trey to cut it to 68-67, then Luca hit two more foul shots and a layup after a massive stop to lead by five with 17 seconds left, icing the game.
“We were kind of sloppy … on defence and they really took advantage of that,” Clearsky said. “She made her way into the post and we had a hard time getting her out.”
McLeod finished with a game-high 24 points while Hooper and Luca had 18 each for the Cougars.
MRU shot 36.9 per cent to BU’s 34.3 and made 17 of 39 free throws while the Bobcats hit 12 of 16.
The teams meet again today at 5 p.m.
» tfriesen@brandonsun.com
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