Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Giving up six points in a tough 28-second stretch at the end of the first half proved to be the TSN turning point for the MacEwan Griffins men's basketball team in a 73-49 loss to the Winnipeg Wesmen on Friday night
Leading for most of the opening 20 minutes and seemingly about to go into the break on a positive note, the Griffins conceded a foul to Wesmen leading scorer Shawn Maranen, who made three free throws and followed that up by hitting a three with five seconds left to send the visitors into the break up 32-28.
"We gave up six points in the last 20 seconds and that's the difference in the first half," said MacEwan head coach Mike Connolly. "We gave up a stupid foul and gave them three free throws and then gave them a three at the end, that was the difference."
Including those six points, the Wesmen went on a 19-0 run into the middle of the third quarter as the Griffins didn't hit a single shot in the first 4:43 of the third frame.
The game was all but over at that point.
"They're a good defensive team," said Connolly. "They cranked up their defence, we had 30 turnovers and then they turned us over in the third quarter and went on that run. That was the difference."
With the result, the Wesmen improve to 3-2 on the season, while the Griffins drop to 0-7 with their 40th-straight loss, a slide that stretches back nearly three years, although it's important to note the majority of the current lineup hasn't been around for much of that.
Maranan led the Wesmen with 19 points, six assists and five rebounds, while Mikhail Mikhailov chipped in 12 points and seven boards.
MacEwan was led by Matthew Osunde, who scored 19 points and narrowly missed a double double with nine rebounds, adding four assists and three steals. Taylor Cook had 12 points.
M��| Taylor Cook is good for another big three in the second quarter, but @MacewanBasketb1 trails @Wesmenathletics 32-28 at the half.@CanadaWest #GriffNation pic.twitter.com/o8fKwKrFWJ
— MacEwan Griffins (@MacEwanGriffins) November 26, 2022
Connolly was generally pleased with his team's defensive effort, but their offence just couldn't get going after half-time, scoring just 21 points in the final 20 minutes.
"We've got to take better care of the ball when teams pressure," he said. "And you've got to execute and take extra time. But we threw it away a bunch of times, we folded under the pressure a little bit and we didn't shoot the ball well. We shot 29 per cent. We missed bunnies. That's with a young team. Those bunnies will come. The threes we can shoot better, we can work on that."
They can certainly build off of strong stretches shown by their defence, though, as they go into Saturday's rematch (4 p.m., David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV).
"I'm really happy with the way we played (defensively)," said Connolly. "We held that team to 73 points.
"I was happy with how we worked at the end. We just kept battling. Some guys came off the bench who don't normally play and did solid defensively, didn't let us down."
