SASKATOON, Sask. - After a hard fought 2024-25 campaign, the Saskatchewan Huskies men's basketball season came to an unfortunate close Saturday night (Feb 15) after suffering a narrow road defeat at the hands of the Brandon Bobcats by a final score of 60-53.
Needing at least one win over their final two games to stay in playoff contention, Saskatchewan was unable to do so after suffering back to back losses against the Bobcats to close out their season and finishing with a final record of 5-15.
For the Cats, their final two game surge propels their regular season record to 7-13, allowing them to sneak into the final CanWest playoff spot and setting them up for a first round matchup against the #5 seed Trinity Western Spartans.
In their final game of the season, it was fitting that Saskatchewan was led by two players who helped propel them all year long in
Emmanuel Bonsu and
Easton Thimm, as the two Saskatchewan scoring leaders were once again at the top of the stat sheet for the Dogs.
Over a team-high 31 minutes of action, Thimm once again grinded his way to another signature double-double performance by collecting ten rebounds and shooting 50 percent from the field for a total of 14 points. The Huskies big man also managed to go a perfect 4-4 from the foul line, while adding one block and one steal.
Meanwhile, Bonsu also put in a solid final performance for the Huskies, collecting 15 points on 30 percent field goal shooting while adding four rebounds, two assists, one block and two steals to his final stat line. However, Bonsu was unable to connect from deep, managing to convert just one three point shot on seven attempts.
Bonsu was not alone in this regard as the Huskies were unable to get anything going from beyond-the-arc. Over four quarters, Saskatchewan converted only two of fourteen long-ball attempts, thereby marking an untimely season-low for the Dogs. Meanwhile, the Bobcats hit 31 percent of their three-point attempts, going 9 for 29 from distance and led by the veteran trio of Sultan Haider Bhatti, Dewayne Thompson and Jack McDonald, who together combined for 49 of the Bobcats' 60 points and eight of the Bobcats' nine successful three point attempts.
After finding themselves trailing by 17 points with eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Dogs' determination to extend their season began to show. With the score 56-39, the Huskies went on a 15-0 scoring run to cut the Bobcat lead down to three with 3:56 remaining in the final frame. However, the final minutes turned into a defensive struggle as neither team recorded a basket until Haider Bhatti was fouled and sent to the line with 9 seconds left. The Bobcats' leading scorer then calmly knocked down both attempts, ultimately sealing the victory for the Cats and sending Saskatchewan into the offseason, finishing 2024-25 with a record of 5-15.
