Spartans mount sizzling comeback

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This article was published 27/12/2015 (3722 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The first day of action at the Wesmen Classic ended with an electric bang, with a junior varsity final so much more charged than a mere mid-season game.

Partly, it was because of the matchup, a Sisler-Garden City classic. Partly, it was the thunderous Duckworth Centre crowd and the way the momentum churned and changed at the University of Winnipeg.

Mostly it was how, when the final buzzer sounded, the Sisler Spartans had completed a stunning comeback to claim the title, 67-64. After trailing for most of the game they’d managed to dampen Garden City’s attack. They’d fought back to win the school’s third Wesmen Classic junior varsity title and the first since 2004.

Spartan Shawn Maranan, named tournament MVP, had a cousin on that last Wesmen Classic-winning Sisler JV team. To bring the trophy back to Sisler, he said, left him “speechless.” Shout-out to the Fighting Gophers, he added, because they made for a daunting opponent. After all, they led until the final minutes.

“It seemed like three days; it took forever,” said Maranan, who led the Spartans with 26 points. “It feels nice, that’s for sure. But this is just another step. We’ve got to hop over all those other hurdles. What we’ve got to focus on is in March, at provincials… we work hard, and that’s all I’ve got to say.”

The Spartans had to work hard Sunday night. Garden City leaped into a lead early in the first and held it most of the game. Close to the end of the first half, driven by a strong attack, the Fighting Gophers had built that lead up to 38-24 and looked to control the play.

That’s when Sisler responded. In the final minutes of the half, Spartan Eli McKay popped a three-pointer, then snagged the next rebound, and suddenly his squad was pushing back. They went into the half trailing 38-27, but riding a surge of fresh momentum. That’s when Sisler coach Bernard Kankam made some changes.

“When you’re down like that, you’ve got to just continue to do things,” Kankam said. “We switched it up, looked at defence and focused on anchoring on defence. That switched up some things. They couldn’t score, but then on offence we couldn’t score… but they were still knocking away at it. That’s what you need to do.”

After the break, the Spartans rebounded, until a free throw by Moranan tightened the score to 40-39. The Fighting Gophers started pulling away again, but they couldn’t get too far; the teams finished the third quarter with Garden City leading 48-43.

Then the Spartans charged. Minutes later, they tied the score at 48-48, and again when Maranan netted a deuce on a breakaway at 50-50. Then a three-point shot by McKay handed Sisler their first lead of the game, with under six minutes left to play. The jam-packed crowd erupted into chants and hollers.

Garden City didn’t go quietly. An inspired performance from Fighting Gophers star Kyle Lai kept the score tight; Lai would finish with a game-high 29 points on the night and was deadly from beyond the line. He drained eight three-pointers on the night, including five in a row during the second half.

But while Sisler held firm, Garden City stumbled into trouble. In just the last 30 seconds and with the lead still within their reach, the Fighting Gophers were charged with four fouls that led to five points for Sisler — enough to erase Lai’s last three-pointer, which had clawed Sisler’s lead to just a single point.

Moments later, Maranan nailed two free throws to seal the winning score. Lai took one last shot, looking to tie the game against the buzzer; this time, he missed.

It was a wild last minute, but that’s not far off what Sisler coach Kankam expected.

“You know that team’s never going to give up, until the end,” he said.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca