WINNIPEG – A hot start and a big performance from Canada West scoring leader Faith Hezekiah propelled the Winnipeg Wesmen to an important win over the Manitoba Bisons on Thursday night at the Duckworth Centre, 79-60.
Winnipeg improves to 7-12 with the win, while Manitoba falls to 8-11. The teams remain holding on to the last two playoff spots in the conference with one game left in the regular season.
Hezekiah led all scorers with 24 points, adding 15 rebounds — a measure the Wesmen dominated on the evening. The rebounding margin was 60 to 42 in favour of the home side.
"I thought we had a pretty good game plan coming in. I thought we missed some shots early which got to us a little bit," said Bisons head coach Michele Sung. "We just kind of didn't focus on what we needed to do from there and their primary scorer got scores for them."
The win counts as a tally for the Wesmen in the 28th annual Duckworth Challenge. Heading into the men's basketball game also on Thursday night, the series that spans women's soccer, basketball, and volleyball is tied 1-1.
Manitoba was led by eight points from Taylor Randall and Deidre Bartlett. The Bisons struggled from the field, shooting just 27.3% and 25.0% from three.
The Wesmen were primed from the opening tip in front of their home crowd. While an Emma Thompson three cut their early lead to 7-5, Winnipeg responded with a 12-1 run to lead by double digits before the first timeout of the game. They would lead by as much as 21-6 in the first frame, building their rebounding margin with solid play inside.
In the second, the Wesmen went on another run to start things off. The energetic play of guard Farrah Castillo set up a few easy transition baskets, as Winnipeg would take a 40-18 lead with under three minutes left.
The Bisons responded, though, putting together a string of dominant defensive possessions led by a backcourt of Tianna Mighty and Taylor Randall; they would cut the halftime lead to 44-26.
Unfortunately, Winnipeg started another quarter on a run in the third. A 5-0 run started things, but the Wesmen lead would balloon to 29 points by the end of the frame. Hezekiah surpassed the 20-point mark late in the third, as the guard was 11-for-27 from the field on Thursday.
"We wanted to give [Faith] multiple looks but I don't think the variety helped us," said Sung. "We just need to focus on what we need to do better."
Manitoba would run with a bench unit to start the fourth, who battled to get the game a bit closer, but ultimately came up short.
Manitoba and Winnipeg will meet again this weekend, this time on the Bisons home court at Investors Group Athletic Centre. Tip is set for 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 2.
