Gill breaks Brandon record in victory

Munroop Gill emptied his entire bag of tricks on Friday night, etching his name into Brandon University Bobcats’ history.

The second-year guard from Surrey, B.C., was electric from the opening tip to the final buzzer, and walked off with the school’s all-time single-game scoring record. Gill dropped 43 points — surpassing Joey Vickery, who previously held the record with 42 at nationals in 1990— to lead BU to a 97-91 victory over the Alberta Golden Bears in Canada West men’s basketball action at the Healthy Living Centre.

“It’s pretty cool. It’s really special. I had no intention of doing that, but I’m glad I did it,” Gill said. “I wasn’t going to stop until we finished, until we got the win. We take it one game at a time, and now we’ve got to move on to (today).”

Gill ignited Brandon’s offence with a trio of acrobatic layups early in the first quarter.

With a little bit more attention on him, Arjun Hehar and Orie Zehavi had space to work to the rim and open up a 14-8 lead.

Midway through the first quarter, Alberta (0-1) forward Caiden Kushnir grabbed a rebound and was swarmed by Bobcats (1-2). He caught Gill with an elbow and received a flagrant foul for it, while Youri Cange picked up a technical foul after getting in Kushnir’s face.

The Golden Bears responded to Gill’s early surge with absolutely no adjustments, as the second-year guard piled up 18 points in the first quarter to put Brandon up 35-25.

No two drives were the same. Each got the HLC crowd going a little crazier.

“Muscle memory, keep going, going, going. All the work I’ve put in, just trusting my work and going to every move 100 per cent,” Gill said.

Gill sat the next two minutes, and Alberta cut the lead to four. When he returned, Hehar broke the mini run, then Malik Brown drilled a triple, then Gill netted a quick four points to put Brandon back up eight.

With Alberta’s defence collapsing, Max Winters and Hehar connected from beyond the arc late in the half.

On the other end, the Golden Bears kept it competitive by hammering the ball inside and working their mismatches.

Gill hit one more three-ball, then a buzzer-beating floater to hit 29 and put Brandon ahead 62-50 at halftime.

Alberta made a solid push in the second half, narrowing the lead a bit, but BU coach Gil Cheung called a timeout and his group responded to restore the 12-point lead.

However, Brandon’s scoring struggles returned as Alberta limited Gill to just two points, and shut all of the Bobcats out for the last 2:40 of the frame.

Isaac Simon pushed the visitors on a 10-0 run to close the third down 80-79.

“Second half, they were denying it, and I was just looking to move the ball, couple of bad shots I forced, but we move on,” Gill said.

Alberta took the lead two minutes into the fourth when Nash Semeniuk drilled a three. Gill tied it on a steal-and-score, and it stayed within a possession most of the way.

Gill hit two free throws to tie it with just over three minutes left, then a tough bank over a bigger defender to get to 37.

Then, down a point, Gill hit the deep three to take the lead and set BU’s regular-season record — previously held by Fred Lee (1980) and Dany Charlery (2008) with 38.

Gill hit a free throw to get to 41, then hustled in and collected a loose ball. He drew an unsportsmanlike foul by the six-foot-nine Kushnir, which disqualified him from the game.

“Never back down from anything,” Gill said. “That’s not me. I’m a dog, I always, always, always fight.”

Gill let out a roar for the fans, then took a deep breath and sank the two free throws to pass Vickery for the all-time lead.

“He was really good tonight,” Cheung said.

“For being 5-10, 150 pounds, he competes every single night and he really tried on the defensive end too. That’s the biggest thing I’m proud of. Yeah, he had 40-whatever, but he guarded and he tried. We worked on that all week.

“Pound for pound, he’s the toughest kid ever. Love that kid.”

Simon led Alberta with 18 points.

Hehar had 17 for Brandon.

The teams meet again today at 7 p.m.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com