If the Winnipeg Wesmen tell you they don't remember Nov. 1, 2025, you'd be hard-pressed to believe them after what they did Friday night.
Just over a year after suffering a stunning upset at the hands of the MacEwan Griffins, the Wesmen men's basketball team brought out the fists and the boots and went to work for a small amount of revenge, dominating the Griffins 95-53 in a Canada West conference victory at the Duckworth Centre.
Last year, a Wesmen team that was at the time and would finish the season among the best in the country, inexplicably laid an egg against a team they had beaten 11 straight times by an average of 21.6 points per game over a seven-year span. The Wesmen left Edmonton with a 2-1 conference record and feeling no joy.
What a difference a year makes.
The Griffins managed to hang around throughout the first half. Despite being on the wrong end of a a 23-8 run to start the game, the Griffs pulled off a 10-0 run to get back in the mix. And when Winnipeg pushed the lead back into double digits in the second quarter, MacEwan found a way to stick around, trailing 40-35 with 3:11 left in the half.
That's when the Wesmen reached for the nunchucks to beat back the pest that wouldn't go away. The Wesmen held the Griffins to just one field goal the rest of the half and tore off a 32-6 run that spanned parts of the second and third quarters and put Winnipeg ahead by 32 going into the fourth.
MacEwan was outscored 42-15 in the second half, making just one of 12 field goals in the third quarter.
And Winnipeg stuffed the stat box, too.
Kato Jaro had a conference career-high 29 points with eight assists, five rebounds and five steals.
Elijah Mensah, who was among the shooting-percentage leaders in the country entering the game, did himself no harm by making 9 of 10 from the field and finishing with 19 points. He also chipped in seven rebounds. And
Alberto Gordo quietly amassed 14 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
The Wesmen, who were among the leaders in a variety of offensive categories in the Canada West entering the game, boosted their standing in a few of them. Leading the conference in assists per game, they added 28 more; top-five in the conference in three-point percentage, they went and made 48.1 per cent from the perimeter, their highest output since making 48.5 per cent against Fraser Valley, Jan. 27, 2023.
And they upped their points-per-game average — entering at 94 — by just a schmidge and stayed second in the country in that category.
And one more for the road: The Wesmen had 16 steals, their most in a conference game since they had 18 against Thompson Rivers Nov. 4, 2022.
Winnipeg outrebounded MacEwan 43-30, including 18 on the offensive end.
David Wilmes led the Griffins (0-3) with 14 points and Wol Wol had 11 points off the bench.
