Vancouver Bandits Beat Defending Champions Scarborough to Improve to 2-0
Quality over quantity: that was definitely the case for Kur Jongkuch.
Of all the players who saw game action for the Vancouver Bandits on Sunday afternoon, no one played less than Jongkuch, who was on the floor for just over five minutes of action. But despite the limited minutes, there was no denying that the 6-foot-9 forward left his mark.
Trailing by 13 points in the fourth quarter, Jongkuch came up with three blocked shots – two of them on the same possession – with Koby McEwen and Zach Copeland drilling 3-pointers on the subsequent offensive possessions.
And those plays were pivotal as the Bandits rallied for the 88-83 victory over the visiting Scarborough Shooting Stars at Langley Events Centre. The win improved Vancouver to 2-0 while the defending Canadian Elite Basketball League champion Shooting Stars fell to 0-2.
“One possession can change a game; one possession can change your season,” said Vancouver head coach and general manager Kyle Julius, on the motto his coaching staff has been preaching to the players. “And Kur really demonstrated that in his minutes today. He really sparked us.”
Vancouver now prepares for a road tilt versus Saskatchewan on Thursday, May 30 (6:30 p.m. PT tip-off). After the quick road trip, the Bandits welcome the Calgary Surge to Langley Events Centre for a big rematch of last year’s Western Conference Finals as part of its South Asian Heritage Game on Saturday, June 1 at Langley Events Centre.
Tip-off for this Saturday’s game is at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale now at this link.
By the time the third quarter wrapped up, the Bandits had cut the deficit to two points, setting up a fourth quarter where there were three lead changes and another three times the score was tied, including when the game was knotted at 79 heading into Target Score. Vancouver outscored the Shooting Stars 9-4 during the Target Score period for a second straight win to open the season.
And while Thursday’s season opener saw the team lead for all but 2:37 of the game, Sunday’s victory required the team to withstand a potent long-distance attack from the Shooting Stars, who were good on 16 of their 37 3-point attempts, connecting on 43.2 percent of their attempts.
Bandits point guard Tazé Moore said the team was focused on just one play at a time.
“Can’t hit a home run too fast. You need base hits and once you get there, you get there,” he said following his team-high 19 points. Moore also added eight rebounds and seven assists and two blocked shots.
As a team, Vancouver finished with 14 blocked shots, including those game-altering three swats from Jongkuch, which didn’t surprise Moore.
“It was big time. He always comes in; even during practice, he comes in and does the little stuff,” Moore said. “Tonight, that was just him doing his everyday work.”
Nick Ward also had 18 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots, but left the game early in the fourth quarter and did not return. But James Karnik stepped up to score 14 of his 18 points after that, including stealing the ball for the lay-in for the winning points. Karnik finished with 18 points and a team-high nine rebounds to go along with four blocked shots.

It marked the second straight game the 6-foot-9 forward has been solid down the stretch.
“If you watch the film, both sides of the ball, his effort, energy and execution were through the roof,” Julius said.
All five Vancouver starters finished in double figures as McEwen chipped in with 17 while Copeland had 10 points to go along with nine assists and eight rebounds.
For Scarborough, Jackson Rowe (20 points, 10 rebounds) had a double-double while Tevian Jones chipped in with 16.
Shooting Stars coach Devan Blair liked his team’s first half – they were up 49-44 – but his team did not adapt when the Bandits ratcheted up the pressure.
“It should be really tough to lose a game when you shoot 43 percent from three and hit 16 of them,” he said, adding he felt there were some open looks his team passed up. “We know we can play the way we want to, but we can’t just do it for four-minute spurts, we have to be able to sustain it for the entire game.”
“When we got downhill, they did a pretty good job of coming over and getting a hand on it. They have a lot of big athletic guys, but we have to do a better job finishing through contact.”
Up next for the Bandits is their first road contest of the season as they travel to Saskatchewan to face the 2-0 Rattlers before returning to LEC on Saturday, June 1st.
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