Brandon took big step in return to playoffs

A new era is here in Brandon University women’s basketball.

Here to stay? Only time will tell.

The last time they made the Canada West women’s basketball playoffs, an immediate drop-off and string of abysmal seasons followed.

However, that 2016-17 campaign was the culmination of a full five-year cycle under head coach Novell Thomas, as BU went 8-12 and lost a play-in series 2-1 to Trinity Western.

It was the last year for star guard Keisha Cox, while a few others moved on as well, leading to a stretch of seven campaigns with just 12 regular-season wins combined.

BU broke through this year, going 7-13 and returning to the post-season for the first time since 2022, when all 17 schools were included following a COVID-19 modified regular season.

This season, head coach Ilarion Bonhomme’s second at the helm, showed no signs of being the team’s peak.

As of now, everyone except for graduates Piper Ingalls and Cali Yates is returning, and BU’s ceiling is higher than ever in its 20-plus years in Canada West.

“We made some improvements, so that’s the biggest thing. Definitely wanted to take a step forward in comparison to last year,” Bonhomme said. “The girls set a goal for themselves that they wanted to make the playoffs, so they achieved that. That was big for us.

“The coolest thing for me as a coach and the whole coaching staff is we get to see the development outside of basketball and they made huge strides in that area, so that’s what I’m most happy about.”

EBBS AND FLOWS

The Bobcats had a strong pre-season, going 4-2 against U Sports opponents. Brandon opened the regular season 3-1 with wins over Manitoba and Winnipeg and a split with Lethbridge.

Then came the gauntlet when BU faced four of the top-10 teams in the nation in a row, including Saskatchewan, Regina, Calgary and Alberta, leading to a 3-9 record at the break.

“One of the big things we always try to harp on is our ability to manage adversity,” Bonhomme said. “The girls handled it well.

“They’re not just dealing with those top teams; they’re still dealing with school, dealing with coaches, dealing with tons of stuff. They handled it well.”

BU bounced back to win four of its last eight games and take the No. 12 seed for the playoffs. It drew UBC Okanagan in the first round and fell 86-70.

THE LINEUP

It didn’t take long to realize Brandon’s offence had a new look in imports Macaya Copeland and Ella Averill, joining fifth-year guard Piper Ingalls as the biggest scoring threats.

Bonhomme expected Copeland, a Minnesota native who was named National Junior College Athletic Association Division 3 player of the year last year, to score at all three levels — at the rim, mid-range and beyond the three-point line. She delivered, averaging 16.6 points per game on 15.4 field-goal attempts, good for third in Canada West.

“And when she’s really engaged on that defensive end, she’s special there too,” Bonhomme said. “The transition she was able to make from playing in the States to coming here, it’s not an easy transition to make, especially for a young adult.”

Averill had a slower start but found her offensive form after the semester break, averaging 18.5 ppg in the last eight contests to finish at 14.8 ppg and 7.8 rebounds per game. The rookie from Australia was one of just three players in the league to crack the top 10 in both categories.

“The other two were first-team all-stars, so she had a special rookie season, a historic one,” Bonhomme said.

“You compare her first half of the season and what she did in the second half … second half she’s like 18, 19 a game. Her improvements, the hours of work she puts in have really paid off.”

Averill was left off the Canada West all-rookie team, while Ingalls, who averaged 22.4 ppg in the second half and 15.9 on the season — fifth in Canada West — wasn’t named to an all-star team.

Ingalls led the league in three-pointers made, and leaves a big void on the offensive end, which the Bobcats will have to fill either in scoring by committee or in dramatically improving upon their league-worst 81.7 ppg allowed, an area in which the five-foot-three guard wasn’t as effective.

The sophomore group, including Renee Dauphinais, Ivy Bestland, Taya Clark, Abbey Shand and Madi Schettler, has the tools to help if they take a big step into their third year.

“I sometimes try to expedite their process. They’re still such young players, this is such a huge jump from playing in Manitoba high school basketball,” Bonhomme said. “All of them have special, special talents, their ability to pressure the ball, ability to play with pace … if that stuff can develop just a little bit in small increments, we have a chance to do really good things next season.”

MOVING FORWARD

The Bobcats still have a long way to go to reach the Canada West quarterfinals or semifinals, considering they went 1-12 against playoff teams, with the rest of their wins coming against the bottom three in the Prairie Division.

But Bonhomme said he expects Copeland, Averill and Amaya McLeod back for 2026-27, with rookie Jessie Sumner, recruit Halle Penner, the rest of the young corps and hopefully a few more recruits in the pipeline.

For now, it’s tough to predict another step forward in the standings, but it feels less likely that BU regresses barring transfers by the key imports.

What’s certain is this group will work hard.

“I joke with them all the time, this basketball stuff is hard. We ask a lot of them, the sprints, the lifts, the early morning sessions, it’s a huge sacrifice on them. They just buy into it, so I’m happy about that,” Bonhomme said.

“We’ll be OK. Now we’re at the point where we have an expectation to win and we understand we’re working towards something.

“Even if we get in those games where we’re down in positions we don’t want to be in, we try and chip away at it and understand we’re still trying to develop.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com