Ambanza powers Wesmen past Bisons

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This article was published 07/02/2019 (2487 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Big games often bring out the best in big-time players. On Thursday night, Narcisse Ambanza rose to the occasion.

The third-year University of Winnipeg guard poured in a career-high 36 points while adding three rebounds and six assists to power the Wesmen to a 92-77 victory over the Manitoba Bisons in a first-round Canada West men’s basketball playoff game at the Duckworth Centre. It was the first playoff meeting between the teams in 18 years.

The sudden-death playoff triumph sent eighth-seeded Winnipeg to a quarter-final matchup next week against a yet-to-be-determined opponent, while it meant the end of the year for a disappointed crew of Bisons, who finished the regular season in ninth place.

Wesmen head coach Mike Raimbault was asked if he told Ambanza he needed more from him.

“I say that to him every game,” Raimbault said. “He’s a guy that steps up when the stakes get bigger, you know, he’s made a lot of big shots for us at big moments. We really count on him to do a lot of things for us on both sides of the ball.”

Ambanza, who previous season-high was a 31-point output on Nov. 10 at MacEwan, equalled a career high established against the Brandon Bobcats last season.

The 6-2 lefty was thrilled to engineer a reversal of fortune after the Bisons handed the visiting Wesmen an 81-78 defeat in the regular-season finale Saturday.

“Last Saturday, we went out big against them and they came back and eventually won the game, so we made it a priority to keep the lead and keep fighting throughout the entire game,” Ambanza said. “I was struggling of late against U of M, and I just took it upon myself to prepare myself better for this game. I just came out, had a lot of energy and helped my team.”

Ambanza, who had 12 points in a pivotal opening quarter, credited some extra prep for the start.

“There was a lot of zoning and packing it in, it was kinda tough for me to figure it out on the fly (Saturday),” Ambanza said after finishing with 14-for-20 shooting, including 4-for-8 from behind the three-point line on Thursday. “But I went back, we watched film and figured out how to get into better spots and it just worked out tonight.”

The hosts bolted out to an early 15-3 lead and held a 33-14 edge after the first quarter. But, just as the Wesmen looked like they were ready to put the game to bed early, Manitoba pushed back late in the second, outscoring Winnipeg 21-16 in the quarter.

Bisons guard Rashawn Browne’s layup just before the intermission provided his team-leading 15th and 16th points of the game. Winnipeg, shooting 58 per cent in the opening 20 minutes, led 49-35 at halftime. Manitoba shot just 39 per cent in the opening 20 minutes.

“I thought they came out really knocking down, they shot the ball very, very well early in the game,” Bisons head coach Kirby Schepp said. “I mean, they shot 70 per cent in the first quarter to our 33. I thought we had a number of really solid looks, right at the rim, layups and finishes.

“I thought the biggest thing is we didn’t respond to that well. We sort of got down and we got down on ourselves a little bit. A little bit of adversity, and we didn’t respond to it well and it started to snowball.”

Added Raimbault: “I was happy we were really engaged defensively from the get-go. And, I think when we do that, our offence flows a lot more freely for us.”

Browne finished with 23 points, while James Wagner and Andre Aruda chipped in with 16 and 15, respectively. Wagner had a game-high 10 rebounds.

“Sure, we were plus-5 in the second and even in the third, but it wasn’t enough,” Schepp said. “It just requires so much energy just to kinda come back, which we did to some extent, but then you run out of gas at some point.”

Winnipeg got some timely contributions from Billy Yaworsky, who had 16 points and eight rebounds, and Don Dayrit, who added 11 points and four assists.

“I thought in the first half, when we had some foul trouble, we had some guys in the game that haven’t played in I don’t know how long,” Raimbault said. “I was especially proud of those guys’ ability to come in and play composed.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14