It is often said the team who makes the least mistakes will win the game.
In the case of the Manitoba Bisons, this theory couldn’t have been more true on Friday as the prairie invaders defeated the UNBC Timberwolves men’s and women’s basketball teams 66-63 (m) and 76-69 (w) from the Northern Sport Centre.
After coming off a very succesfull home weekend against the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack, both varsity teams were equally as sloppy due to several unforced errors and offensive turnovers.
In the women’s game, Taylor Randall was the differece for Manitoba posting a 20-point, seven assist effort leading the 6-7 to the shocking road upset.
“I think our biggest problem in that game was coming out with such little energy we came out flat and we weren’t playing our game and we weren’t taking opportunities that their defence was giving us and I think playing this team again even though it is a loss is something we can build on and we’ll come out way stronger tomorrow night (Saturday),” said Madison Landry, Timberwolves Forward.
The Timbwerwolves turned the ball over 27-times over the course of the defeat even though UNBC battled back to take one and two point leads early in the fourth quarter.
Landry had 18 points in defeat while Mongomo recorded 23 for the 8-5 T-Wolves.
Manitoba improves to 6-7.
The effort was equally as frustrating for the men, who went 6-for-29 from three-point range leaving lots of points on the court resulting in their three point defeat.
UNBC was trailing by as much as 17 points in the first half due in large party to the foul trouble of Vagelis Loukas as well as the monster effort from Bisons player James Wagner with 27.
“We weren’t able to get into a rhythm, and we got some guys in early foul trouble,” said UNBC coach Todd Jordan. “At the end of the day, we should be able to handle it better than we did. That’s no excuse for turning the ball over like we did, and making a lot of mistakes.”
The Timberwolves committed 15 turnovers in the loss.
Jovan Leamy picked up 28 points in the loss to the Bisons.
James Agyeman had a frustrating outing going three-for-thirteen with just eight points for UNBC.
The men drop to 7-6 on the season.
Both varsity teams play tonight (Saturday) at 5 and 7 at the Northern Sports Centre.