Khushal Shukla cuts between two Golden Bears defenders on Saturday (Husain Dhooma photo).
Khushal Shukla cuts between two Golden Bears defenders on Saturday (Husain Dhooma photo).
November 23, 2025

Griffins outscored early by hot-shooting Golden Bears as late rally falls short in 87-71 defeat

Program Tickets Box Score

Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – Coming out firing, the Alberta Golden Bears had 10 points on the board in just the opening 2:32 of Saturday's men's basketball contest against MacEwan.

An early hot three-point shooting streak (5-for-7 in the opening quarter) would carry them to a 22-point lead at the half before the visitors cruised to a comfortable 87-71 win over the MacEwan Griffins.

"It's funny because we talked about, 'hey guys, they're not going to stay cold like this forever.' That's what we talked about last night after the game," said Griffins head coach David Kapinga. "We did a pretty good job containing (on Friday) and it's not going to stay that way. (They shot) 47 per cent from three in the first half; that's crazy. Meanwhile, on the other side, we were 0-for-10. 

"I think they created separation through that. And you know what, credit to them. They find an open guy and that ball is in his hands on a dime and it's wide open. Meanwhile, we're still working on a lot of things – passing the ball on time and on target, things like that."

With the result, the Griffins fall to 2-8, while the Golden Bears, who are ranked ninth in U SPORTS, are now 7-1.

Isaac Simon was on fire for the Golden Bears early, scoring 14 of his game-high 23 points in the first quarter, including two threes. He likely would have had over 30 if he didn't sit for nearly half of the second half as Alberta gave action to some of their bench guys.

Ethan Egert had a double double for Alberta (12 points and 11 rebounds), while Kyle Varner (13 points) and Nate Waldron (11) were also in double figures.

MacEwan was led by Favour Igbinyemi, who recorded 17 points and six rebounds in 17 minutes off the bench, while Hugo Alonso had 13 points, Dami Osuma hit 11 and Diego Presingular set the table with six assists.

"It felt good," said Igbinyemi of his strongest offensive effort as a Griffin. "I'm just out there to help the guys. I just always appreciate every time I go out there with the boys. Just always want to play as hard as I can on the court. That's my motivation; just play as hard as I can, help on defence, offence, rebounding – wherever the coach needs me."

Six of Igbinyemi's points were from the charity stripe, showing how he was pushing the play.

"The big thing I would say is Favour, for sure, getting to the line," said Kapinga of positives in the contest. "And Diego is looking more like a point guard. I know he had 2-for-10 from the field, but six assists, two turnovers, he's looking and smelling like a point guard. And that excites me a lot because that was a goal I had for him to change his game into that. 

"I think when we add Marcus (Moore) coming back and all the other guys progressing – Khushal (Shukla) and Ben (Pearson) starting to get into their own – I think things could be pretty special in the second semester. We're just going to keep working to get there."

The Golden Bears relied on their depth for the win, but also feasted on second chance points as they had 19 offensive rebounds.

"We've got to get boards," said Igbinyemi. "They just killed us on the glass. They got more second-chance points than we did, they had more possessions, they had more chances to do more things. We would play solid defence and just couldn't close it out. 

"Once we turn that up, we'll be a different team, 100 per cent. That's the only thing that's holding us back. That and just finishing plays on offence. Once we fix those two things, we're going to be a great team."

The Griffins head into a bye week, so that's it for their first semester schedule, meaning we won't see them back on the court until Jan. 9 at Lethbridge. The practice continues regularly, though, until then.

"We have a lot to work on," said Kapinga. "We've been progressing, we've been developing. The thing about the season is everybody else is also progressing. As soon as we kind of get a rhythm, we get an injury or something.

"It's a tough journey. But the guys are going hard, they're listening, they're understanding what we're trying to do. The culture's getting to where I want to get to. Our goal is just 40 minutes of that. That's where we've got to get to. We're not there yet."