Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON — After losing their season opener in heartbreaking fashion, the MacEwan Griffins wanted nothing more than to come out with vengeance in their rematch against the Mount Royal Cougars.

But a nightmare second quarter where they were outscored 31-13 proved to be too daunting of a hole to climb out of as they dropped an 88-74 decision on Saturday afternoon at the David Atkinson Gym.

Justace Byam led MacEwan with 16 points and four rebounds in the loss, while Job Janda recorded a near double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds, before fouling out midway through the fourth quarter. 

Dray Walburger led MRU with 20 points off the bench, including four from beyond the arc, as MRU had 57 points from their bench in the victory. Avnoor Bhullar also recorded 19 points and four assists for the Cougars.

"It's a big testament to the mental toughness that you have to have in this league to lose such a tough game yesterday and come back with a fresh mindset and come out and compete," said Byam.

"I think we did that in the first quarter, and in the second quarter, we let it get away from us. We had a solid second half, but we dug ourselves too big of a hole we couldn't get out of. 

While the rough second quarter was certainly a factor in the loss, the Griffins can also look to their work in the paint. They were out rebounded 50-43, but gave up 23 offensive rebounds in the loss, with 15 of them coming in the first half, alone.

"Crashing the glass and boxing out, that was a big emphasis at halftime. That's something we pride ourselves as a team, and it was disappointing on all of us to lack in that area — especially in the second half," said Byam.

During the preseason, the Griffins showed they can be a team that can be locked in defensively, even after being tested against some of the top teams in the country, but they got away from it in the opening week of the regular season, giving up 90 and 88 points in both their losses.

"I don't think we played defence all weekend. Last night, I think we played one of our worst games. We were lucky to score 90, but that means nothing if you're not guarding anybody," said Griffins head coach Mike Connolly.

"We've been taking pride in guarding, and (in the preseason) we were holding No. 1 and No. 2 teams to like 60-70 points. We gave them 90 and 88, we couldn't guard the ball."

Justace Byam drains a three in the second quarter and leads the @MacEwanGriffins with 11 points at half-time.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/VdKNWgU3rp

— MacEwan Griffins Men's Basketball Team (@Griffins_MBB) November 2, 2024

Down 21 entering the second half, the Griffins chipped away at the Cougars' lead bit by bit. MacEwan cut the MRU lead to 14 after a Joe Seke floater late in the quarter, but Walburger made a heads-up play, grabbing an air ball on a three-point attempt and put it back off the glass to give MRU a 67-51 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Griffins were able to trim it down to an 11-point lead off a nice floater from Hugo Alonso, who recorded 10 points in the loss, but the Cougars seemed to always come back with a key shot to not allow MacEwan to go on any sort of run.

After Alonso's bucket, Sam Barnie pulled up and nailed his second three-pointer of the game, and that was as close as the Griffins could get.

"We have to do a better job of not letting it get out of hand so fast and managing the game. When they do go on those runs, we have to contain it and punch back versus letting it get out of hand and having to claw back," said Byam.

"They came down and ran the same play six times and got open looks. Eventually it's going to go in and it came at a bad time. We have to do a better job adjusting; we can't wait for them to miss or score, we have to make adjustments on the fly. That's on us."

Job Janda takes it to the hoop with authority, scoring through traffic in the third quarter.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/n0s8hXDWKK

— MacEwan Griffins Men's Basketball Team (@Griffins_MBB) November 2, 2024

Connolly felt his team lost their focus at different times in the loss against Mount Royal, and this was a tough lesson learned in the opening weekend of the season.

"We're focusing on everything else except for what we can control," said Connolly.

"We have to have a consistent effort. Guys get panicky when we get down now. We have to play through it, relax and we can't be focusing on the wrong things. We're not focusing on defence, and we're not focusing on rebounding.

"They had two guys that killed us on the glass in the first half, and then we held them to two and four rebounds in the second half. We have to do a better job… there's no excuse for that. It comes down to compete and battle. It's heart and compete and we have to learn from this."

MacEwan will be off next week, before travelling south to face the Calgary Dinos on Nov. 14-15.