Mitch Creek, Nick Ward lift Bandits to tight win over Sea Bears

The Vancouver Bandits emerged victorious in a back-and-forth nailbiter against the Winnipeg Sea Bears at Canada Life Centre on Saturday. 

In just his second game of the season, Bandits big man Mitch Creek was a nuisance inside and led the team to a 102-99 triumph with 31 points and eight rebounds. He said the Vancouver ball movement played a big factor in the win. 

“You just try and play the game the right way. I'm not trying to mix it up too much .. just trying to be a little bit smarter than everyone else, and then allow my teammates to get some great looks as well,” Creek said. 

With Tazé Moore out for the contest and Koby McEwen also leaving the game early, Nick Ward and Diego Maffia stepped up for Vancouver. 

Ward’s 22 points on 10-12 shooting allowed him to surpass current Sea Bear Alex Campbell for the Bandits’ all-time regular season points record.

Meanwhile, Maffia was scorching hot from beyond the arc, netting 14 points on 5-7 shooting from the floor and 4-6 from three to go along with six assists. 

“​​That’s standard Diego. Unfortunately, he doesn't get as many minutes as he could on our team, but .. he does that all the time,” Bandits’ head coach Kyle Julius said. 

Despite an off night, Zach Copeland managed 12 points and eight rebounds, in addition to the Target Score winner. 

“I thought that our guys just stayed poised and we were pretty focused during Target [Score] Time,” Julius said. 

On the other side, the league’s top scorer Justin Wright-Foreman paced the Sea Bears’ offence with 31 points and a game-high seven assists on 11-19 shooting. 

Emmanuel Akot contributed 18 points in a starting role, while Scottie Lindsey made big plays down the stretch and finished with 17. Lindsey said it was the defence late in the game that made the difference on Saturday. 

“Little details are super important at that time of the game – especially if it’s a one-point game or two-point game – we just have to be more sharp,” Lindsey said. 

Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson was the only other Winnipeg player to hit double figures with 15 points off the bench, all coming in the first half. 

Despite the loss, Sea Bears head coach Mike Taylor was proud of the effort and competitiveness. 

“There's a lot of little details we can clean up, but at the end of the day, we had possession with a chance to win,” Taylor said. 

Vancouver controlled the early stages of the game and didn’t trail during the first quarter. Creek and McEwen led the way for the Bandits’ offence early, and a Copeland turnaround jumper gave the squad a 10-point advantage. 

However, Ogungbemi-Jackson caught fire after missing just his second free throw of the season. The hometown hero got going from the mid-range before knocking down a contested three. Ward closed out the frame playing bully ball and provided the Bandits with a 30-23 lead after one. 

Wright-Foreman heated up in the second quarter and closed the gap to just two points with a triple. Ogungbemi-Jackson tied it with a lefty finish to force a Julius timeout. Another three shortly after from Wright-Foreman gave Winnipeg its first lead of the night. 

After going back and forth for several possessions, Wright-Foreman knocked down another triple, this time with contact, to complete a four-point play. Vancouver pulled even again late in the half, but Ogungbemi-Jackson and Wright-Foreman connected on back-to-back trifectas to head into the locker room with a 54-48 lead.

Overall, Winnipeg hit seven threes in the opening 20 minutes. McEwen’s pair of contested jumpers from beyond the arc in the first quarter were the only threes of the half for Vancouver. The Bandits shot 54 per cent from the field overall, but just 20 per cent from long range. Vancouver also turned the ball over nine times in the first half, while Winnipeg was careful in possession and didn’t record a turnover. 

After a cold start, Lindsey kicked off the third quarter with another four-point play for Winnipeg to extend the lead to double digits. 

The Bandits stayed resilient and went to work inside with Creek and Ward, who helped Vancouver tie the contest at 68 after a 16-6 run. Maffia also caught fire for the Bandits and connected on three trifectas to power the team to a 77-73 lead after 30 minutes. 

Creek was impossible to stop inside early in the fourth and after missing a few jumpers, he added an open three. The Bandits led 92-83 in the final frame and looked poised to take an advantage into Target Score Time, but a pair of clutch Lindsey triples helped Winnipeg even the score at 92 before the final stretch. 

To begin Target Score Time, Creek scored in transition to give the Bandits the advantage. Simon Hildebrandt was fouled on a three and made a pair of free throws before an unsportsmanlike foul on Ward gave Winnipeg another two shots and the ball. 

The Sea Bears came away with one point from the charity stripe and Maffia answered with another clutch three for Vancouver. The two sides traded buckets until the game was tied at 99 with Vancouver in possession. 

A failed pass into the high post and a lengthy video review gave the Sea Bears the basketball with a chance to win, but Wright-Foreman couldn’t get the roll on a layup. Copeland came back the other way with a contested three to end it. 

Vancouver improves to 11-5 and return to first place in the Western Conference standings, while Winnipeg drops to 7-8 in fourth place. 

What’s next?

The Bandits and Sea Bears will play each other again on Thursday (July 18) at 7 p.m. at Langley Events Centre.