Cougars shut Bobcats down in second half

Amaya McLeod made her presence known and felt all game in her long-awaited return.

The import guard forced the Regina Cougars to adjust to the “Make someone else beat us” strategy. Unfortunately for the Brandon University Bobcats (3-6), it worked as the Cougars rode a strong second half to an 85-67 triumph at the Healthy Living Centre on Friday.

BU’s Canada West women’s basketball losing streak stretched to five games while Regina (7-0) stayed perfect.

“I don’t think we backed down from the challenge,” McLeod said. “They are a very good team and we can hang with them. We can hang with teams like that. I just think we need to execute a little bit better, stay together, that’s all.”

McLeod finished with a game-high 21 points on 5-for-13 shooting, while making nine of 12 free throws.

She missed the previous four games with a concussion, but came back fearless and ready to attack.

“I was just happy to be back, honestly,” McLeod said. “I’ve been out for a bit and I was just hungry. I just wanted to be hungrier than them, get downhill. I know I can attack, I know I have a pretty fast first step, so that was all.”

Both offences were fantastic from the jump. Jade Belmore and Cara Misskey got the Cougars going with a few quick buckets before McLeod and Piper Ingalls drilled three-pointers to put BU ahead.

The Bobcats led 17-14 before giving up a 7-0 run off of three turnovers, but bounced back when Macaya Copeland stole the ball and scored, then hit a triple.

Copeland netted 13 points to push Brandon up 26-23 through 10 minutes.

After both teams shot over 40 per cent from the field in the first quarter, they took a huge dip in the second.

The Cougars decided Copeland and McLeod’s combined 21 points in the first quarter were enough and clamped down on the two imports.

Brandon hit five of 14 field-goal attempts while Regina just six of 24, but grabbed six offensive rebounds and got to the free-throw line for another five points to lead 41-37 at halftime.

The back-and-forth battle continued for the opening stretch of the third. BU kept it close and took its first lead since early in the second quarter after forcing a few turnovers midway through the frame.

But after that, the Bobcats stopped moving the ball on offence while the Cougars patiently worked it inside for easy baskets, rattling off a 12-point run to go up 63-51.

Regina still wasn’t shooting well, but once again created more opportunities on the offensive glass.

Ingalls broke the run with a deep ball to make it 63-54 Cougars heading to the fourth.

Regina’s defence remained relentless, limiting Brandon’s open looks all over the floor. The Cougars chipped away on the other end before Izzi Fust hit a trey to extend the lead to 20 with less than four minutes remaining.

What started as a game BU could seemingly hang around in turned into a showcase of discipline by a veteran U of R squad that looked for solutions to their offensive troubles, and found them.

“Offensively, we were moving the ball very well and also defensively we were able to get a lot of boards and that leads to less shots for them,” McLeod said of the first half.

“They started to pack the paint a little bit more. The ball started sticking. We just need to learn to move the ball and get into our sets a little bit better.”

Copeland finished with 17 points, while Misskey and Rachel Vanderhooft had 16 each for Regina.

The Bobcats grabbed eight offensive rebounds while giving up 18.

“Keep them off the O-boards, move the ball,” McLeod said. “I think we’ll get ‘em (today).”

The teams meet again today at 5 p.m.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

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