EDMONTON - Isaac Simon and the Alberta Golden Bears continued their playoff preparations with a highly entertaining 77-64 rivalry, comeback victory over the MacEwan Griffins Friday night at the Saville Centre.

This was not an average entry into the Bears-Griffins historical record, as the game was incredibly tight until the very late fourth, and MacEwan held the lead for 75% of the game. They went on a remarkable 20-0 run to start the game, but were unable to hold Simon and the Bears back for the full 40-minutes.

Simon was his usual self, scoring a game-high 33 points in what is quickly becoming one of the more impressive offensive seasons in recent Bears history. Kyle Varner was close to a double-double with seven points and ten rebounds, and Fahad Yusuf chipped in nine points in the win. Alberta moves to 9-10 on the year, and with a win and a Mount Royal loss tomorrow, have the potential to move into the fifth position in the Prairie Division.

The Griffins slide to 2-17 on the year, but saw some promising performances including a team-high 19 points from Diego Presingular, and 17 and 15 for Job Janda and Milan Jaksic respectively.

MacEwan was incendiary in the opening quarter, as they rattled off a remarkable 20-0 run to begin this contest, and it took until the 5:02 mark for the Bears to record their first basket. Presingular was unstoppable, recording a frame-high 12 points which all came from beyond the arc, as the Griffins went 6-for-10 from deep in the quarter. Nash Seminiuk and Ethan Egert were the sparkplugs for the Bears, who clawed back to end the first down 16-28.

The Bears improved in the second quarter, mostly on the back of Isaac Simon who was terrific with 11 points in the frame as Alberta outscored the Griffins 15-12 to enter the second half with a 40-31 deficit. Simon was perfect from the stripe on four attempts and was the only offence for most of the quarter as the Bears struggled to find secondary options, while Presingular paced all scorers with 17 at the break.

Alberta continued to thaw their frigid offence behind Simon and Nate Waldron in the third, each of whom had an assist to go with a bucket. They outscored MacEwan 17-11 in the frame, and their defence was impressive too, limiting the visitors to a 33.3% mark from the field. The table was set for an exciting finish with MacEwan holding a slim 51-48 lead.

Simon and the Bears struck an early advantage in the final frame, a 15-4 run that lasted midway through the quarter that gave them an eight-point lead and got the Saville faithful pushing decibels. The Griffins turned the ball over four times while Alberta hit three triples in the largest swing of momentum since MacEwans opening 20-point run. They would dribble it out for the last few minutes en route to a comeback 77-64 victory.

The teams return to the Competition Gym tomorrow at 7PM MST, which is the final game of the regular season in the Canada West for both sides.