Bandits’ late surge sends Sea Bears to third consecutive loss

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/07/2024 (806 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Sea Bears have done a great job playing up to their opponents’ record this season.

While that was the case once again in Saturday’s Canadian Elite Basketball League action, the Sea Bears found themselves on the wrong side of 102-99 thriller against the Vancouver Bandits in front of 8,878 fans at Canada Life Centre.

It was Winnipeg’s third loss in a row.

Bandits guard Zach Copeland was the hero in Target Score Time.

He drilled a three-pointer from the wing to exceed the Target Score of 101 after Justin Wright-Foreman’s layup rimmed out at the other end of the floor.

“We had an opportunity to win it tonight,” said Sea Bears head coach Mike Taylor. “We had the possession, we had the play we wanted, we had the player we wanted going to the basket and Justin just rimmed out the layup.

“Today, we just had the ball bounce the other way.”

The Sea Bears fell to 7-8, still good for fourth in the Western Conference, with five games remaining in the regular season. The Bandits, who now hold a 2-1 advantage in the season series, improved to 11-5 to maintain their place atop the Western Conference.

Wright-Foreman was his usual self, leading the hosts with 31 points on 11-for-19 shooting in 35:21 of playing time. Emmanuel Akot and Scottie Lindsay helped carry the offensive load with 18 and 17 points, respectively.

Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson, playing for the first time after missing two games with a back injury, led all players off the bench with 15 points.

Vancouver came out firing, shooting 61 per cent as a team, and held a 30-23 advantage after the first quarter. The Sea Bears, who took their first lead of the game when they went up 37-36, bounced back with 31 points in the second frame to take a 54-48 lead into the break.

The tug of war continued into the third, with the Bandits hitting a couple of shots in the dying seconds of the third quarter to take a 77-73 lead into the final act.

While Winnipeg limited CEBL leading scorer Koby McEwen to six points, the hosts struggled to contain the Bandits’ interior opportunities.

Recently acquired Mitch Creek got to the hoop consistently and led the visitors with 31 points, while forward Nick Ward did his own damage in the paint, recording 22 points, eight rebounds and two blocks.

“The game that we beat Vancouver earlier in the season here, we had a really good performance of our interior post play… and (Ward) was a non-factor in the game,” said Taylor. “He was really motivated for the game today — he came out and really asserted himself physically.

“We had one or two possessions where the doubles bothered him early in the game but overall he won those match-ups a lot and you can see why he’s one of the top big men in our league.”

The Sea Bears trailed by as much as nine in the fourth quarter until Scottie Lindsay spurred a comeback with a pair of threes. The teams went to target time tied 92-92.

“At this point, there’s no moral victories, right?” said Ogungbemi-Jackson of the team’s playoff push. “We got to win because there’s only five games left and the last couple of games have hurt us.

“I still believe in what we can do with the team, but on our home floor we got to do a better job, and when we get a good lead we got to push it or maintain it and we got to keep our defensive effort the same throughout the entire game.

“A lot of times we’ve been able to scratch and claw our way back to a win at home bit tonight was one of those nights where they just grinded and toward the end they made plays and we didn’t.”

The Sea Bears will continue their playoff push on Thursday when they wrap up their season series with the Bandits at the Langley Events Centre.

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jfreysam