Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Matching the best defensive effort seen this season against the vaunted Alberta Golden Bears offence, the MacEwan Griffins held their cross-town rivals to just 71 points.
Only defending conference champion Victoria can say they've done that in 2022-23 against a team that entered Saturday averaging 89.5 points per game.
Unfortunately, the Griffins' offence didn't have enough at the other end as they fell 71-61 in Canada West men's basketball action at the David Atkinson Gym.
"I'm glad they kept battling," said MacEwan head coach Mike Connolly, whose team rallied back from 25-point second quarter deficit. "That's one of the leading offences in the conference and the country and we held them to 71.
"Overall, we battled hard for the weekend. I thought we competed both nights. We've got to be better offensively and that comes to working on our game, shooting the ball."
Matthew Osunde led the Griffins with a career-best 25 points and narrowly missed a double double, adding nine rebounds in a full 40 minutes on the court.
M��| FINAL
— MacEwan Griffins (@MacEwanGriffins) January 22, 2023
Matthew Osunde scores off a steal and finishes with a game-high 25 points as @MacewanBasketb1 fights valiantly to the finish before falling 71-61 to @BearsandPandas in @CanadaWest action. Stay tuned for a recap.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/rBLn9gccyD
"The thing that really impressed me tonight was Matty's defence," said Connolly. "He got into guys, he's quick enough, he was able to get some deflections and just made it tough. It actually created a lot of layups for him.
"That helps his offence get flowing. When he plays defence and is doing the right things attacking the rim and getting open shots, we're a better team."
Milan Jaksic added 10 points for the Griffins, while Thai Haak had nine points off the bench, including six-straight in the third quarter.
Thai Haak scored six-straight points in the third quarter and produced nine off the bench (Eduardo Perez photo).
Alberta had four players hit double digits as Isaac Simon scored 12, Brandon Meiklejohn and Max Russell had 11, and Adam Paige bucketed 10.
With the result, Alberta improves to 9-5, while MacEwan drops to 0-14.
Connolly was happy with the defensive effort overall but noted there is still some lapses to clean up.
"Our effort was pretty good," he said. "We had mental breakdowns. We left open threes. The first half, they were 5-for-7. At the beginning of the third quarter, we gave up two quick threes and it extended again. We lose focus in what we're trying to run. Defensively, we've just got to stay with the game plan and don't give them threes.
"Sometimes I don't know why double down," he added. "Dami (Osuma) has been controlling all the posts that we've played. We don't need to double down. So, it's just mental mistakes."
Next up for the Griffins is a road trip to Winnipeg to face the Manitoba Bisons on Jan. 27-28, while the Golden Bears host Brandon on the same weekend.
