Undefeated Bandits down Sea Bears to extend season-opening streak

WINNIPEG, MB - It wasn’t pretty, but the Vancouver Bandits (4-0) remained undefeated all the same.

A 100-89 road win over the Winnipeg Sea Bears (1-3) on Wednesday night was the latest victory for the CEBL-leading squad, one which they earned after rallying from down 13 in the first half.

Spearheading Vancouver’s fourth-consecutive double-digit win was yet again the three-headed monster of Kyle Mangas (game-high 27 points), Mitch Creek (23 points and nine assists) and Tyrese Samuel (16 points on 7-of-9 shooting). The trio proved why they all rank within the top 10 for scoring in the league this season as they combined to account for 66 per cent of the Bandits offensive production on the night.

Meanwhile, MiKyle Mcintosh chipped in 11 points, five rebounds and two steals in his 15 minutes off the bench.

On the other side, Tevian Jones led the Sea Bears with his team-high 23 points, six assists and five steals. The import guard struggled efficiency-wise, however, as he shot just 6-of-17 from the field and went 4-of-14 from distance — the only Sea Bears starter to finish with a negative plus-minus (minus-15).

Jaylin Williams finished with 21 points on 8-of-16 shooting, while Terry Roberts and Alex Campbell put up 16 and 11 points to round of Winnipeg’s double-digit scorers.

“Credit to Vancouver, they’re a good team, but everything we could control, we didn’t,” Campbell said following the Sea Bears’ third-consecutive loss. “Energy, effort, second chance plays … those compiled.”

They say three-pointers are the great equalizer, and Winnipeg proved that point early on Wednesday, using the long-ball to punch first against the league’s hottest team. The Sea Bears opened the game with an 11-4 run that was sparked by a 3-of-4 shooting start from beyond the arc.

The trio of makes from Jones, Williams and Campbell were an encouraging change as Winnipeg entered the night last in the CEBL in three-point percentage (24.8) despite ranking second in attempts per game (36.3).

They ended up hitting 4-of-8 triples in the opening frame to carve out a 29-23 lead after 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, Vancouver did itself no favours early, uncharacteristically turning the ball over seven times through the first quarter – a number that was already more than half its usual average per game (12.3) that ranked second-lowest in the CEBL.

Had it not been for the Bandits giving up 21 points off their many first-half turnovers, they may have avoided their first victory of less than at least 30 points.

“I thought we were asleep at the wheel in the first half,” Vancouver head coach and general manager Kyle Julius said of his team’s sloppy start. “There was this aura of nonchalance.”

Neither of those early trends lasted, however, as the Sea Bears hot shooting cooled off — finishing 10-of-38 (26 per cent) — and the Bandits limited them to just eight points off giveaways the rest of the way.

Those changes allowed the league’s top offence to get to work as Vancouver went on a 21-4 run between the end of the second quarter and start of the third, taking their first lead of the ball game after trailing by as many as 13 points in the first half and facing a 48-45 deficit at the break.

And the Bandits held onto that momentum throughout the frame largely thanks to Mangas who caught fire. The import guard went a 6-of-7 from the field for 15 points in the third as Vancouver outscored Winnipeg 34-11 in the third and ended the frame on a 17-0 run as they broke open the largest lead of the game.

The Sea Bears did show some resilience in the final frame, cutting a 79-59 deficit entering the fourth down as low as seven points during Target Score time.

“For the majority of the game, there were a lot of positives,” Winnipeg head coach and general manager Mike Taylor said post-game. “But that third quarter, we got sped up a little bit, made poor decisions … for the majority of the game we made strides but we weren’t consistent enough and that stretch came back to haunt us.”

Vancouver kept Winnipeg at arm’s length however, thanks to timely offence by its leading scorers. A dunk from Samuel stopped an 8-0 Sea Bears run and then Mangas finished things by hitting back-to-back triples — the final two of his five makes from distance on the night.

“That was really good,” Julius said on his team facing some adversity. “We got punched in the mouth in the first half and I thought that response was really good in the third quarter.” 

Box Score
https://www.cebl.ca/game?id=2600579

Up next
The Bandits return on Friday as they’ll visit the Edmonton Stingers (1-3) for the second of four matchups this season. It’ll be a swift rematch following last Saturday’s contest in which Vancouver picked up a dominant 109-79 win.