CALGARY — The No. 12 seed Manitoba Bisons couldn't be stopped from distance on Thursday afternoon, as they hit 15 triples on their way to a 74-55 win over the No. 15 seed UBC Thunderbirds.
The first round victory for Manitoba is the program's first playoff win since the 2008-09 season, as they'll advance to play the No. 5 seed Lethbridge Pronghorns at 3 p.m. MT tomorrow in Calgary. For UBC, the loss means the end of the line for their 2021-22 campaign.
In the new Madness-style bracket in Canada West, 17 women's basketball teams will be narrowed down to four by the end of the weekend.
Second-year guard Lauren Bartlett led Manitoba with 20 points, going 4-for-6 from three. She also added seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.
"I think we really came in today to compete and everybody was just giving 100 percent," said Bartlett. "Honestly that's what won it for us at the end of the day, just that tenacity."
UBC struggled from the field early, making just one of their first 11 shots, but kept the Bisons within range until late in the third quarter. Third-year guard Hailey Counsell had a game-high 26 points, shooting 10-for-25 from the field.
"We came out a little bit slow and we tried to fight back," said Counsell. "We kept chipping, we would go on runs, they'd go on runs and in the end we just couldn't."
With Lauren Bartlett setting the pace, the Bisons got off to a hot start. The former Canada West All-Rookie made two threes in the early going to give Manitoba a 10-2 lead. A Counsell and-one after the midway point of the quarter cut Manitoba's lead to 13-8, though, as the higher seed would carry a 16-10 lead into the second quarter.
Triples once again pushed the Bisons' advantage, however. Autumn Agar hit a difficult step back triple, followed by fifth-year Taylor Randall making one from the wing, to make it 22-10.
UBC began to gain some footing as they forced the ball inside, as Emily Martindale and Madison Legault would combine for ten points in the game. The T-Birds struggled with momentum, though, and went just 8-for-34 from the field in the first half.
Seven points in the second quarter for Agar and eight for Randall gave the Bisons a 36-22 lead at halftime.
UBC came out of the break with energy, going on a 9-3 run to cut Manitoba's lead to the lowest it would be in the second half — seven points. After a Bisons timeout, though, two threes from Deidre Bartlett — one of which came heavily contested — would extend the lead back to 54-39.
Through the rest of the third and in the fourth, the Bisons were able to maintain an advantage around that range.
"It's a new day tomorrow," said Barlett on the team's upcoming matchup with the Pronghorns, the CW central division champs who went 10-6 in the regular season.
"We're super pumped to play in that game. We came in wanting to make it to that next round. We're super excited to play Lethbridge and I think it'll be a great game."
