Canada West Men's Basketball: Week Two update

The first week in the CIS gave us plenty of storylines to follow. Victoria defeated Trinity Western twice on the road and took hold of the #9 spot in the nationwide ranking, while Thompson Rivers finally beat a top-ten opponent in Fraser Valley. Despite that blip on the radar, Fraser Valley dropped a single spot in the rankings, as did Alberta, who dropped a close decision in Manitoba. Going in to Week 2, defending champion UBC Thunderbirds finally took to the court and the CIS world got its first look at UBC-Okanagan in the hoops world.

UofS 71 @ UofA 77 | UofS 69 - UofA 74

Why hello there, upset. After going 1-1 last week, Alberta surprised the Huskies twice in a row to climb to 3-1 on the season. In Saturday's closer affair with Alberta up 70-69, Andrew Bates missed the second of two free throw shots, but 6'2'" guard Matthew Cardoza quickly rebounded it to Jordan Baker who hit the clincher to put the Bears up by three with :23 seconds to go. It capped a delightfully close 4th frame which never saw any team lead by more than four points until the ending and had five tie scores. Baker led the way shooting 10-for-20 and earning 25 points and five assists. Todd Bergen-Henengouwen (I hope Alberta plays in the finals just to hear Rod Black say his name) had three steals and 19 points for the Bears. Duncan Jones led the way with 17 for the Huskies and Chris Unsworth came off the bench to score 13.

In the Friday game (this recap began in medias res) Nolan Brudehl got 20 points and eight rebounds, but again the Bears pulled away late, outscoring Saskatchewan 25-14 in the final frame with Henengowen getting a couple of late layups which clinched the game. Daniel Ferguson led the Bears with 19, but Baker probably should have, considering he missed six free throw attempts and had 18 in the end. Of concern for Saskatchewan, last year's leading scorer Jamelle Barrett has averaged just 11 points thus far and is off the top page of leading scorers in the league.

Friday

Brandon 55 @ UBC 91

This one wasn't really close, and nobody should have expected it to be, despite Brandon's win in Calgary last week. The Thunderbird starters didn't last more than 31 minutes into this one, and already by halftime the score was 40-23. Brandon only eclipsed 13 points in a single quarter in the last, and most of that came in garbage time, with UBC beating them handedly. The T-Birds bench got 30 points alone, the the Bobcat starters got just 34, 12 of those coming from Ali Mounir. It was a good start offensively for the Birds, who shot 52.5% and hit seven three-pointers, three of those coming from guard Malcolm Williams who led the team with 19 and also put up four assists.

Regina 66 @ U-Victoria 85

After getting trounced in their first week by 27 points to a much-superior Huskies team, the Cougars met a similar fate against another ranked team in Victoria. Speedy guard Ryan MacKinnon laid into the Cougars on this night, potting 26 with five assists and was a clear deep threat, going 6-for-12 from beyond the arc, including three in a 62 second span in the first quarter. Team rebounding, as is usually the case, was no concern to the Vikes with a 38-19 advantage in that category, including 16-14 off of Regina's defensive glass. As a positive for the Cougars, Paul Gareau put up 23 in the losing cause, shooting 6-for-8 from the field.

Manitoba 76 @ Fraser Valley 101

After a brief hiccup in Kamloops, UFV ran yard on this night, although the scoresheet is completely incomprehensible. According to this, Joel Friesen played 15 minutes and took a single shot. I think I'll let Dan Kinvig from the Abbotsford News have this one:

Joel Friesen led the charge against Manitoba with a ridiculously efficient offensive performance – he scored 24 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field, including 5-of-6 from three-point range.


Actually, that may tell us less than the scoresheet. The 11 and 11 line for Jasper Moedt looks pretty spot on, however. But man, is that ever frustrating.

Other scores and Key Performances...

Winnipeg 77 @ Trinity Western 78: A late charge by Winnipeg was held off, and Sean Peter's 9 rebounds for the Spartans was a factor in a dominant performance off the glass. Tristan Smith had a game-high 23 for Trinity who got their first win on the season.

UBC-Okanagan 61 @ Lethbridge 88: The Pronghorns started on a 11-0 run and the Heat didn't get their first CIS points until 4:05 in on a jumper from Simon Pelland. Derek Walder had a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double for Lethbridge as they improved to 2-1.

Thompson Rivers 96 @ Calgary 79: All hail the juggernaut that is the TRU WolfPack. Kevin Pribilsky (my homer pick for MUBL!) had 26 and the WolfPack had ten three-pointers which led them to another victory in Calgary.

Saturday

Regina 71 @ UBC 100

Well, whoops. That's three consecutive beat-ups on the Cougars to start the season, and some more garbage-time minutes for UBC's bench who dominated for the second straight night. Nathan Yu went crazy on this night, going 11-for-19 from the field, 6-for-11 from beyond the arc, finishing with 34 points and eight assists... in just 29 minutes of play! About all you can say about Regina's performance on this night is that they didn't get out-rebounded in their own end again, but they shot just 36.4% in this game. Actually, that brought their average on the season up to 36.3%. Tommy Nixon scored 19 off the bench for the Thunderbirds, which I guess is also notable, as is the 32 points that UBC scored in the 3rd quarter.

Brandon 76 @ U-Victoria 87

I guess this is a closer score than what Brandon has seen so far in their previous two losses, but Victoria improved to 4-0 and a #8 nationwide ranking with a strong 3rd quarter after leading by just three going into the half. MacKinnon scored another 22 but the team didn't rebound as well on this night, winning that battle just 34-33, which is probably what kept the score close. (Anecdotally, it look like a lot of Brandon's rebounds came in the late stages). Zac Andrus hit 19 with six assists, as for Brandon, Donovan Gayle came off the bench and put up 18 points with eight rebounds. Brandon return home for a double-header against Manitoba this weekend, which should be positively thrilling. In a slightly-more interesting matchup, Victoria welcome the juggernaut that is the TRU WolfPack.

Winnipeg 69 @ Fraser Valley 89

After a close loss the previous night, Winnipeg let themselves get manhandled. Also, the boxscore probably tells the truth here, with big-man Moedt getting 17 points in tight (he shot 8-for-10, and I doubt half of them were mid-range jump shots) and his substitute, Michael James, despite the two first names, was also strong inside the perimeter, getting 18. UFV is a team that's been spreading around the ball a lot in the early going as well as getting some good rebounding, so it's not a surprise to see the big men do the work for them. How very Abbotsfordian of them to play a blue-collar style of game.

Other scores and Key Performances...

Manitoba 68 @ Trinity Western 95: Looks like the Spartans' early-season troubles are over. Calvin Westbrook went 9-for-15 to lead the Spartans to their second consecutive victory.

UBC-Okanagan 57 @ Calgary 85: This time, UBC-O got the first point, but they still got off to a 2-11 run to start as Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson (another good name for Rod Black) put up 20 for the Dinos and they climbed back to .500 on the year.

Thompson Rivers 93 @ Lethbridge 106: Oh, right, defense. The Pronghorns are turning out to be a pretty good scoring team, averaging 83.5 points so far. Starters Daryl Cooper and Alex Fletcher each earned 25, but most of Cooper's points came off of free-throws. Also, Chas Kok hit 45 for the WolfPack, but that apparently wasn't enough.
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