Second-Half Rally Lifts Bandits Past Rattlers in Front of Sold Out Crowd

Sometimes it’s not about how you start, just how you finish.

The Vancouver Bandits (9-3) proved as much with their 97-85 come-from-behind victory over the Saskatchewan Rattlers (3-10) on Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre.

Vancouver won the second half by 22 points (52-30), turning what was a 10-point halftime deficit into a 12-point win that not only extended their lead atop the Western Conference but also snapped a two-game skid.

Tyrese Samuel led that effort for the Bandits with a double-double of 23 points and 11 rebounds on a team-best 7-for-11 shooting. Right behind him was a pair of returnees in Mitch Creek, who chipped in 23 points of his own, and Kyle Mangas, who scored 22 on 6-for-11 shooting from distance. Meanwhile, Nick Ward, the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, made his season debut, albeit finishing with just two points on 1-of-4 shooting in seven minutes of action.

Nate Pierre-Louis spearheaded Saskatchewan’s effort with a double-double as well, putting up 19 points and a game-high 11 assists. Jordan Bowden also scored 19 points to go with five rebounds and seven assists, while Deon Ejim (off the bench) and Grant Anticevich added 15 and 13 points, respectively.

“It was a tough loss,” Ejim said with a tone of optimism post-game, noting how in the first two of four matchups against the Bandits this season, the Rattlers lost both by more than 20 points. “We didn’t have the ending that we wanted, but I was happy with the fight and the fact that we weren’t dominated like the last two games.

Conventional wisdom would’ve said the Bandits ought to have led after the opening frame on Saturday, considering they finished the quarter 6-for-10 from distance, went 10-for-13 from the free throw line and forced three turnovers to their zero.

Yet after Pierre-Louis’ triple in the final seconds of the frame capped off a 10-3 run, part of nine points in the first for him, it was the Rattlers that led 28-27 after 10 minutes.

While Vancouver won the battle outside the arc, it was a completely different story on the interior as the Bandits were 0-for-6 on two-pointers throughout the first quarter, giving up an 8-0 edge on paint points to the Rattlers. Vancouver’s first two-point make didn’t come till 9:13 of the second.

And after seizing the momentum, Saskatchewan made the most of it. Or rather, Ejim did, as the bench forward caught fire to the tune of 4-for-4 from distance in the second. His lights-out shooting led to a game-high 15 points at halftime as the Rattlers led 55-45 after winning the second quarter by nine points (26-17).

“We’ve been in every single game this year,” Rattlers head coach Eric Magdanz said following the loss, noting how seven of the team’s losses have come by seven-or-fewer points. “We’re a team that competes hard … it’s a huge credit to our guys.

“For us it’s about continued growth and we saw another step forward tonight.”

It was a much-welcomed outburst for a Rattlers team that averaged just 8.6 makes from distance per game entering the night, third-fewest in the CEBL. They finished 13-for-28 (46 per cent) from distance as a team on Saturday. 

Whereas the taps turned off in the second for Vancouver after its perfect 5-for-5 start from distance on Saturday, as the Bandits made just one of their next 11 three-point attempts going into the break. That trend didn’t last, however, and ended up being a catalyst for their rally, making nine second-half threes on a 52 per cent clip.

“We started off slow, we’ve had a lot of guys in and out of the lineup … so we really struggled in the first half to find our rhythm,” Creek said after the win. “It’s a bit of a chess match at the moment.”

The first two of those makes came on back-to-back hits from Corey Davis. Jr and Mangas to open the third, they were part of a 14-4 run that was then capped off by a Creek fastbreak layup that gave Vancouver its first lead since the 0:41 mark of the opening quarter.

And it was Mangas who punctuated that effort by Vancouver as he nailed a running, fading triple at the buzzer to extend the Bandits' lead to 72-68 after the third. The import had missed the last two games Vancouver had lost as he went through workouts south of the border with NBA clubs, and it didn’t take long for him to remind the 4,984 in attendance what he was capable of, as his six threes in the game put him up to first in the CEBL for total triples (40) this season.

The Bandits didn’t slow down from there as they opened the fourth on a 10-2 run, carving out an 11-point lead at the start of Target Time on the heels of Creek’s second of three triples on the night.

And while the Rattlers did go blow-for-blow with the Bandits once the clocks were stopped, they needed more to overcome the double-digit deficit. Ultimately, a 5-0 burst thanks to another Creek make from distance and a pair of Samuel free throws — finishing 8-of-9 from the charity stripe — were enough for Vancouver to walk away with a win. 

It was fitting that Saskatchewan committed back-to-back turnovers just before Samuel closed out the ball game, as it was an issue that underscored their loss. In a game where the Rattlers shot better across the board aside from the free throw line, and won the rebound and assist battle, it was self-inflicted miscues that loomed large. The usually disciplined Rattlers, who commit the third-fewest turnovers on average (13.4), finished with 18 as they gave up a 23-8 edge on points off giveaways. Meanwhile, they sent the Bandits to the line for 27 free throws (plus-13), of which Vancouver nailed 22 (plus-14).

“They made us second-guess ourselves,” Ejim said. “And just that simple second-guess cost us the game.”

The skid snapping victory capped off the Bandits' second-annual Filipino Celebration Game, an event that included fan activations, commemorative merch and special edition jerseys. All the while, the team wore a black-stiped patch with the word “Kapwa,” which describes the Filipino experience of community and shared humanity, to honour the lives tragically lost during the events following the Lapu-Lapu Day Festival on April 26.

“It’s the sixth man that people don’t really notice sometimes,” Creek said of the raucous sellout crowd. “All of a sudden, the momentum is in your favour … there’s a different effect. That’s what basketball is all about.”

Box Score 

https://www.cebl.ca/game?id=2600621