By Brett Hopper

WINNIPEG – Coming off their biggest win of the season, a 101-70 victory of cross-province rivals, Brandon (0-18), The Bisons (8-10) were eager to face the Bobcats in the weekend rematch on Saturday night at the Investors Group Athletic Centre.

The Bisons easily took the second game, and the sweep in the series, for the 77-49 win, making it two games in a row for the Herd.

It would be a tough challenge to better the Herd’s performance from Friday night, but Manitoba got off to a good start scoring eight unanswered points. With only four minutes off the clock in the game, the Bisons had already built-up a 10-point lead, going up 14-4.

Manitoba was putting on a clinic both on offence and defence in the opening half at the hands of the Bobcats, scoring 32 points and holding Brandon to 12 at the start of the second frame. Brandon spent the latter part of the half in the offensive zone, but failed to convert most of their opportunities thanks to the Bisons’ ability to contain the attack. Going into the Break Manitoba held a 27-point, 47-20 lead.

In the first half, the Bisons were shooting 53.1 percent from the field, and forced Brandon to turn over the ball 19 times. Leading point-getters were Tessa Klassen and Melanie Schlichter with 13 and 15 points respectively. Allie Butz and Jaelyn Greening both had five points in the first half for the Bobcats.

Brandon mounted a small attack to start the third, scoring six unanswered points, which was then cut in half by Bison guard Tessa Klassen when she nailed a shot from downtown. It was relatively slow going on the part of the Bisons as Brandon was able to chip away at the 27-point lead at the half, to a 20-point, 55-35 point game.

Following their third quarter hiccup, the Herd went right back to work in the fourth going on an 11-2 run spanning over half of the quarter. The rest of the quarter was spent in the offensive zone for the Bisons, where they seemed to either be making baskets or getting the rebounds to reset the shot clock. From there, Manitoba slowly ran out the clock to take the 77-49 win.

The tandem of Klassen and Schlichter finished the game strong, as the two had 18 and 19 points in the game. Allie Butz was the top Bobcat with 10 points.

The Bisons will head out to Alberta next week to take on Calgary on Friday February 1, and Lethbridge on Saturday February 2. Both games will start at 7:00 pm Central time.