Tough night for women, men grab a victory

Cougar Women
It had all the makings of a classic: Two undefeated teams, the best two defenses and the number two and three highest scoring teams in ACAC women’s basketball.

Unfortunately for the Mount Royal women’s basketball team, a classic it wasn’t.

The Cougars were thumped 78-49 by the visiting MacEwan Griffins and suffered their first loss of the season as a result. With the win, the Griffins improved to 7-0.

The first quarter started slowly for both teams, with MacEwan holding a 13-8 lead after the opening frame. Mount Royal went on a 5-2 run to open the second quarter and reduce their deficit to 15-13, but it would be as close as they got as the MacEwan would end the first half with a 37-21 advantage.

“They beat us in every aspect of the game tonight,” offered Cougars head coach Joe Enevoldson. “Every team has one of those games at some point in the year where everything goes wrong, and tonight that was us.”

The game stats tell a lot of the story for the Cougars. As a team, they shot only 26 percent (total) from the field, 29 percent on three-point attempts and only 50 percent from the line. They were also outrebounded 58-38 by the Griffins.

While saying his team wasn’t at their best, Enevoldson was quick to give kudos to the opposition.

“I have to give them full credit. They are a very good basketball team. In the last six years, they might be the best college basketball team I’ve seen play,” said Enevoldson.

The second half of the game began much in the way the first half ended. MacEwan continued to be stronger on the boards, something Enevoldson said the Cougars need to work on, and outscored Mount Royal 27-15 in the third quarter to put the game out of reach.
Griffins head coach Rob Poole was pleased with how his team performed.

“I thought we got better as the game went on. We made some adjustments early, and I thought that once we made those adjustments, we settled into the kind of game we’ve been playing all year,” said Poole.

Danica Rybachuk led the Cougars with 13 points and five rebounds, while Emily Larson netted 11 points and three rebounds. Emily Sommerville responded with 18 points and six boards for MacEwan.

This was the only time the Cougars and Griffins face each other this regular season.
 
Should the teams meet again, it would be in the ACAC playoffs next March.

Next up for the Cougars is Saturday night, Nov. 19 when they host 2-5 Keyano College.
 
Game time is 6 p.m. on Kenyon Court.

Cougar Men
The Cougars men’s team fared significantly better in their contest with MacEwan.

The Cougars received points from 11 or their 12 active players en route to a convincing 78-54 defeat of the Griffins. With the win, Mount Royal improves to 6-1 and holds a four point lead for first in the ACAC south division over Medicine Hat, Red Deer and SAIT, all at 4-3.

Mount Royal dominated most of the ball possession and board play in the first quarter, but only lead by eight, 21-13, after first year guard Mangk Akwl hit a three-pointer at the buzzer. The second quarter was much like the first, with Mount Royal controlling much of the ball possession and pace, and the Cougars were rewarded with another 21 points and a 42-31 halftime lead.

“I don’t think it was a great game for us, but we’re working hard and getting better,” said Cougars head coach Marc Dobell. “We have a lot of things we need to work on. We need to figure out our discipline and continue to buy into some our coaching philosophies.”

Neither squad was able to muster a high shooting percentage, but that can be attributed to the large number of shots each team took. The Cougars overall went 29 of 78 (37 percent) from the floor while the Griffins could only muster 23 for 60 (38 percent). Both teams were fairly even from beyond the three-point arc, the Cougars shooting 36 percent to the Griffins 33 percent.

The Cougars dominated from the free throw line and in rebounding as well.

The Cougars took over the second half of the game using a combination of ball possession and varying the pace of their attacks. Dobell said the Cougars try to play an up-tempo game, but sometimes that results in the team playing too quickly and making bad decisions.

“We’re not taking advantage of our transition as much as we need to. Today I think we did a better job of trying to get the ball up the floor quicker,” said Dobell.

Leading the way for Mount Royal were Mangk Akwl (12 points, five rebounds), Awet Abraha (12 points, four rebounds) and Nick Loewen (10 points, seven rebounds). Fifth-year forward Keville Ollivierre led all players with 10 rebounds on the night.

Next up for the Cougars is Nov. 19 when they host 4-3 Keyano College. Game time is 8 p.m. on Kenyon Court.