EDMONTON - Third-year Caiden Kushnir recorded a 19-point, 16-rebound double-double to lead the Alberta Golden Bears to a tight 89-81 victory over the Brandon Bobcats Saturday night at the Saville Centre.

Kushnir set a season-high in points, and a career-high in rebounds with the strong performance in the win, and was joined in the effort by Kyle Varner who had a game-high 20 points. With the win, the Bears under new head coach Geoff Pippus are off to a strong start, currently tied atop the Prairie Division with a 5-1 record. They visit crosstown MacEwan next weekend, looking to improve on their stellar start.

The Bobcats fought hard all weekend, and saw a great game from leading scorer Sultan Haider-Bhatti who led the team with 16 points. The depth was also impressive in this one, as five 'Cats finished with double-digits in the points column. They drop to 3-5 and will look to right the ship hosting the Regina Cougars next weekend.

It was a hotly contested start to this one, as the Bears on the back of strong rebounding and turnovers got out to an early six-point lead in the middle of the first. However, the Bobcats would shoot the lights out the rest of the way, recording a 69.2% mark from the field in the quarter, to knot the game at 20 after one. Amazingly, seven Bobcats recorded a basket after just the first quarter, as their depth certainly came to show out in this one.

Brandon was not done there, as with the momentum seized they went on a 7-0 run to start the second, prompting an early timeout from the home side. Travis Hamburger, the leading scorer at the half for the 'Cats with 14, led the way for the visitors who at one point opened up a 10-point lead in the quarter. Alberta would do a nice job of responding, however, as back-to-back threes from Kyle Varner and Logan Powell stopped the bleeding and some strong play from Caiden Kushnir led the Bears into the break with a 41-38 lead.

The third was hard-fought from both sides, with Isaac Simon pacing the Bears with a quarter-high eight, and the Bobcats sinking six threes in the frame, but it would end largely the way it started with a slim 62-60 Alberta lead. The fourth would proceed the same way, until a mid-quarter 7-0 run from the Bears, capped off with a huge Matthew Osunde three, would put them in the driver's seat headed down the stretch. The Bears would maintain a slim five-point margin, until a missed Bobcat free throw and two Alberta makes with thirty-seconds left put a bow on this contest which finished 89-81.