At the conclusion of the 2017-18 Canada West conference men's basketball regular season, the Manitoba Bisons finished as the seventh seed in the conference with a 12-8 record and now will host the tenth seed Brandon Bobcats (9-11) in the Canada West Play-In playoff game played on Friday, February 9.
The Play-In playoff game has a special start time of 7:30 p.m. CT and will be played at the Investors Group Athletic Centre - IGAC (U of Manitoba Fort Garry campus).
During this season, Manitoba and Brandon met twice in conference regular season action as the Herd split against the Bobcats at home (OTL 88-85 on Nov. 24/17; W 85-84 on Nov. 25/17) and also played in non-conference play as the Bisons won 80-67 on Oct. 20/17 at the U of Winnipeg pre-season tournament.
This will be the sixth time over the last nine years, since Bison men's basketball head coach Kirby Schepp has taken over the coaching duties at Manitoba, that the Bisons have made the post-season and fourth consecutive season with a post-season appearance.
This is also the third consecutive season the Bison have hosted in the post-season. In the 2015-16 season, Manitoba hosted a playoff round for the first time since the 2003-04 season and earned their first playoff series win since 2000-01 when the Herd won the conference quarter-final best-of-three series at Manitoba in two games over Fraser Valley. In 2016-17, the Bisons swept Regina in two games during the conference Play-In best-of-three series on their way to a U SPORTS national championships berth.
This season, the Herd went 6-5 at home in the CW regular season and equaled their regular season win total (12) from last season.
Manitoba enters the playoffs on a two game winning streak as they swept the Fraser Valley Cascades (W 67-46 on Feb. 2; W 82-66 on Feb. 3) to end CW regular season.
This is the first playoff meeting between the two teams since the 2000-01 season when Brandon won in two games at Brandon during the GPAC (Great Plains Athletic Conference) Finals in best-of-three series.
In this conference men's basketball regular season, the Bisons were ninth in scoring offence at 80.5 points per game and fourth in scoring defence at 74.7 points per game. In 3-point percentage, Manitoba ended up first at 36.6% and sixth in field goal percentage at 43.9%. In free throw percentage, the Herd was 16th at 62.3. In Canada West steals per game, Manitoba was seventh at 7.6; in assists per game, Manitoba third with 16.4 per game and in rebounds per game, Manitoba sixth in conference at 41.4 while in blocks per game, the Bisons finished third at 3.6.
Individually, co-captain Justus Alleyn was first place in conference scoring at 24.1 points per game while James Wagner is eighth in CW scoring at 18.6. In Canada West minutes played, Alleyn ended up third at 35.6, Rashawn Browne sixth at 34.8 while Wagner was sixth with 33.9. Alleyn finished fourth at 42.3% while Brown is tenth at 41.7 and Wagner was eighth at 41.5% in 3-point percentage. In rebounds per game, Wagner is 11th with 7.6. Browne led the conference in assists per game at 6.8. Alleyn is T-9th with 1.9 steals per game plus in blocks per game, Wagner tied for sixth with 1.1 and Cameron O'Hara was tied for ninth at 0.8 CW blocks per game.
Bison men's basketball - 2018 Canada West Play-In home playoff game
Date Game Central Time Place
Friday, February 9 Manitoba vs. Brandon 7:30 p.m. IGAC
Bison Men's Basketball – Play-In Playoff Game Ticket Prices: $12 adults; $7 non-U of Manitoba students and seniors while children under 17 are free while also U of Manitoba students are free. Playoff game tickets will be available at IGAC door.
