Winnipeg Takes Bronze, Manitoba Wins Consolation Side at Wesmen Classic!

NPH Top Performers

UBC Okanagan:

Brett Macdonald – 13 points, 5 rebounds

Yassine Gomari – 11 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists

 

Winnipeg:

Mark McNee – 21 points, 9 rebounds

Travis Krahn – 14 points (3/6 3pt), 3 rebounds

 

WINNIPEG, MB–The University of Winnipeg Wesmen faced off against the UBC Okanagan Heat in the third place game as both teams had lost their previous game earning them a shot for bronze. The Wesmen were able to display their superiority over UBCO en route to a 82-49.

Winnipeg came off a heart breaking OT loss to eventual champions Valley City from North Dakota and UBC Okanagan lost to Brandon in their semi final game.

UBC Okanagan started the game off with a good pace as they quickly jumped to a 13-4 lead on the scoreboard, catching Winnipeg by surprise. 

Winnipeg had trouble starting games this weekend as their slow starts made for necessary comebacks and exciting finishes. However, this was not the case in this game. Winnipeg quickly turned it around and closed out the quarter trailing UBC Okanagan by one with help from a Travis Krahn buzzer beating three pointer.

In the third quarter, Winnipeg started to run away with this game, entering a halftime lead of 39-28 and with a solid third quarter performance they extended that lead 66-37 going into the final quarter.

Mark McNee was big for Winnipeg in the second half as he managed 15 points in the second half with some smart plays allowing his team to remain out in front.

Winnipeg displayed a good performance and allowed them to take the bronze while walking away with two victories (UBC Okanagan, Keyano College) and one loss (Valley City). 

Winnipeg Wesmen head Coach Mike Raimbault talked to NPH after the victory about how his team’s performance.

“I thought the energy was consistently more of what we are looking for, we did some good things and we were able to get some kids some minutes that haven’t played much throughout the tournament.”

When asked about the third place finish, Raimbault bluntly stated, “You’re never happy with third place, I thought it would have been nice if we could of put a more consistent effort together yesterday in the semi-finals.”

“At the same time, now that the tournament is over we have to start and get right back into Canada West conference play.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________

NPH Top Performers

UNBC:

Dennis Stark – 13 points, 10 rebounds

Jose Araujo – 11 points, 4 rebounds

Sam Raphael – 10 points, 5 rebounds

Manitoba:

Yigit Ozsayiner – 16 points, 4 rebounds

Stephan Walton – 13 points

Keith Omoerah – 13 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists

Marko Milosevic – 13 points

 

 

WINNIPEG, MB–The battle for consolation had the University of Manitoba facing off against the University of Northern British Columbia. Both teams lost their opening game and then won their second game to earn them a chance for fifth.

The Manitoba Bison’s emerged victorious with a convincing 91-69 victory over the UNBC Timberwolves.

In the start of the game the Bison’s and Timberwolves traded buckets as the Bison’s led after the first quarter by a score of 22-19.

Manitoba started to pull away in the second quarter of play as they outscored the Bison’s 27-10. 

At halftime, all but one Bison who entered the game had scored to add to their 49-29 lead.

Following halftime, the Bisons assumed control of the game and with first year player from Turkey, Yigit Ozsayiner coming in and scoring six quick points, the Bisons continued their dominance of the game. 

The third quarter was highlighted by Keith Omoerah’s buzzer beating half court shot that was taken out of hesitation to even shoot, sending the compact crowd into excitement.

University of Manitoba head coach Kirby Schepp spoke to NPH about the victory and their performance at the Wesmen Classic finishing 2-1. 

“It was gritty and we wanted to get everybody in and work on some things offensively that we struggled with in the first few games. I thought we struggled in our half-court offense and that was our downfall in the Valley State game, they really slowed the tempo down and we had difficulty.”

“In the following two games, that was something that we were really working on a lot, we were working on how we executed. This (tournament) was our preseason warm-up for the second half of the season and trying to work out those wrinkles and problems for Canada West league play, which starts in a week.”