The Vancouver Bandits (7-1) improved to 4-0 on the road this season with an emphatic 101-76 win over the Saskatchewan Rattlers (2-5) on Sunday evening.
It was déjà vu for the franchise-record 3,518 fans in attendance at the SaskTel Centre as Vancouver took the second of four regular-season meetings in a similarly dominant fashion to their first matchup, now having won both by an average margin of 32.5 points.
The Bandits used a full-team effort for their latest victory as seven different players made at least two field goals, while four scored in double figures. And just like he did last time against the Rattlers, Tyrese Samuel led the way as the Canadian put up 21 points. Behind him was Izaiah Brockington, who scored 18 points with three triples, while Shamar Givance and Mitch Creek added 16 points each.
“Really happy with the win,” Vancouver head coach and general manager Kyle Julius said post-game. “Pleased with the energy, togetherness and connectivity of the guys.”
On the other side, Cody John spearheaded the Rattlers as their two-game win streak got snapped, finishing with a team-high 18 points. Meanwhile, Jamir Chaplin chipped in 16 points, while Grant Anticevich and Jordan Bowden off the bench scored 11 points, respectively.
It was no secret that the Rattlers entered Sunday looking for revenge after last month’s home-opener was spoiled thanks to a 40-point loss to the Bandits — a franchise-record win for Vancouver. Saskatchewan head coach Eric Magdanz admitted as much pre-game, noting the rematch had been marked on the calendar.
Unfortunately for his Rattlers squad, the Bandits' league-leading offence continued to prove troublesome as they shot 66 per cent from the field (12-of-18) in the opening frame. The hot start sparked a 13-2 run that helped carve out a 30-16 lead after the first. Practically identical to last time, when Vancouver led by 11 points after 10 minutes into the first matchup.
“We had moments where we fought back, but that’s got to be consistent for 40 minutes,” Magdanz said post-game. “We’ve improved in some areas, but we have some growth yet to happen … we (previously) found success by playing together, playing as a team, and we lacked that today.”
The Bandits have now scored at least 100 points in six of their eight games and are the only team in the CEBL averaging 100-plus points per game. And it’s been done collectively as four Bandits (Creek, Kyle Mangas, Samuel and Curtis Hollis) rank top 30 in the CEBL for scoring.
“Not trying to be arrogant, but we seem to be getting everyone’s best game,” Julius said on his team’s mindset entering the contest. “But when you’re one of the top teams in the league, everybody really prepares for you, and so we really thought today was going to be a significant challenge.”
As has been the case for much of the season, Vancouver asserted their dominance by spreading the wealth as all five starters scored in the first quarter, led by Brockington, who had eight points on 3-for-3 shooting, including two triples.
Also like last time, the Bandits held onto the momentum from there, building their lead up to 20 points (56-36) at the break. Seven different players on Vancouver finished the half with five-plus points, spearheaded by Mangas’s nine points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field.
Unlike the first matchup, however, the Rattlers came out of halftime with a much better response. Rather than getting outscored by 17 in the third like the previous mid-May matchup, Saskatchewan won the frame on Sunday — the first time beating Vancouver for a quarter this season — and chipped into the deficit, down 72-54. And that was primarily thanks to John, as the Mississauga, Ontario native single-handedly scored the Rattlers' first 10 points of the quarter.
“We played within our tempo, we played physically defensively, and that let us get out in transition,” Magdanz explained when asked how his team found success in the third.
But although Saskatchewan had already proven it could rally with the clock stopped — going on an 11-0 run in Target Score Time against the Calgary Surge on Friday for their second win — Sunday’s deficit proved too large to overcome.
Ultimately, Vancouver’s game plan was similar to the first matchup, yielding similarly positive results. The Bandits focused exclusively on rim pressure and were met with little resistance, finishing with a plus-eight advantage in paint points (50-42) while earning 10 more free throws than the Rattlers.
“Proud of how we stuck to the game plan and attacked the paint first and really got ourselves going early,” Brockington said after the win.
The Bandits went up by as many as 26 points headed into Target Score Time before Samuel tipped in a Hollis miss for the game-sealing score, providing one final dose of "been there, done that" as the forward also made the winning basket the last time these teams played.
Up next:
The Saskatchewan Rattlers wrap up their two-game homestand by welcoming the Scarborough Shooting Stars to Saskatchewan on Friday.
