Winnipeg men roll over young Brandon squad

The Brandon University Bobcats went shot for shot with one of the top teams in the country for a half.

Then the Winnipeg Wesmen showed their true colours in the second half.

Winnipeg took a three-point lead into halftime and ran away with a 95-65 victory in their Canada West men’s basketball season opener at the Healthy Living Centre on Friday night.

“It was first-game jitters coming out, nerves coming out,” said Bobcats guard Munroop Gill. “We’ve got a bunch of first-years helping us out and in the first half, we fought together. We’ve got to stay with that, keep going in the second half.”

Gill got Brandon on board with a tough pull-up jumper, then Arjun Hehar completed a three-point play to lead 5-4.

The Bobcats did themselves a big favour just over three minutes in, drawing all-Canadian Kato Jaro’s second foul on the offensive end and sending him to the bench.

The Wesmen returned the favour on Hehar, and rattled off an 11-0 run before Orie Zehavi scored his first points as a Bobcat from long range.

Zehavi knocked down another three-ball, then Gill snuck in for a smooth steal-and-score to help cut a double-digit deficit to 22-17 after 10 minutes.

The second quarter was the Gill show from the start. He made a smooth drive and dish to Zehavi for two, then kept his dribble and lulled Alberto Gordo to sleep before making a scoop layup, and banged a corner three the following possession.

Jaro picked Brandon’s defence apart though, finding mismatches and keeping Winnipeg ahead.

When he took his third foul, his younger brother Liam, a rookie, stepped in and did the exact same thing to put the Wesmen up 36-28.

The Bobcats fought their way to the free-throw line a few times to narrow the gap to 42-39 at halftime.

Hehar started the third quarter with a massive four-point play to take the lead.

That didn’t last long, as the Wesmen pounded the ball inside to Elijah Mensah to draw the Bobcats defence in, then broke open a double-digit advantage at 63-52 when Liam dished to Kato for a three, then Gordo drained another with less than three minutes left in the quarter.

Winnipeg stayed ahead 67-56 heading into the fourth.

“We didn’t come out as strong. We’ve just got to work on that, everyone staying focused, bringing energy,” Gill said.

There was no guessing where the ball would go in the fourth, but it ended up in the Bobcat hoop over and over. Emmanuel Ugbah hit a three, Kato added another, and Mensah continued his unstoppable ways as the Wesmen stretched the lead to 20 halfway through the final frame.

It only got worse from there, as Brandon didn’t even record 10 points in the quarter.

“Their offensive rebounding, that killed us at the end. We’ve got to work on our boxing out, work on getting stronger, all of that,” Gill said.

Mensah led Winnipeg with 26 points, while Gill also had 26 for Brandon.

BU visits Manitoba on Nov. 1.

“We’re taking it game by game. One loss, we’ve got to move on,” Gill said. “November 1, we’ve got Manitoba; we’ve got to move on. All this week’s preparation is going into that.”

FREE THROWS: In Kelowna, B.C., the BU women’s volleyball team opened the season with a 3-1 (25-23, 25-22, 22-25, 25-18) loss to the UBC Okanagan Heat. Maddy Shackleton led Brandon with 10 kills and five errors, while Alexa Parken had six and one.

The men’s match ended after deadline. The teams meet again today.

The BU soccer teams host the Providence Pilots at the HLC field today, with the men starting at 1 p.m., and women kicking off at 3:15. BU plays host to Assiniboine College at Cougars Field on Sunday at the same start times.

In Calgary, the BU women’s rugby club defeated the University of Saskatchewan 40-12 to reach the Prairie University Women’s Rugby Conference championship game. It faces the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology on Sunday at 2 p.m. CDT.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com