Box Score Guelph, ON - The Gryphons men's basketball team fell to 1-4 on the season on Friday night after suffering an 83-79 loss to the Laurentian Voyageurs at the W.F. Mitchell Athletics Centre. With the win, Laurentian improves to 1-4 on the season.
The turning point of the game was a questionable foul on Taylor Boers with 28.2 seconds left in the game as Theo Thomas of the Voyagers jumped into Boers who was going for the block behind the three point line with the shot clock running down and got the call as Thomas was able to make two of three free throws to extend the Voyagers lead to six. Shortly after that transpired, Boers would asnwer at the other end by knocking down a desperation three with 4.4 seconds remaining to cut the lead down to three as the Gryphs still had some life. However, the Voyageurs were able to ice the game from the free throw line and escape with a 83-79 victory.
The Gryphons got off to a very inauspicious start as two quick threes and an easy layup saw the Voyagers jump out to a very quick 8-0 lead. The Gryphs settled down after as they utilized their three guard lineup of Taylor Boers, Daniel Dooley and Jonathan Wallace as they set the tone, driving to the basket and being able to head to the free throw line in the quarter as they were a perfect 10-10 from the charity stripe. Guelph was able to lock down the perimeter in the second quarter as they held Laurentian 0-4 from three after going 3-5 in the first quarter. The Gryphs were able to outhustle the Voyagers on loose balls as they dominated on the offensive glass outrebounding the opposition 10-3. The guards on the Gryphons combined to score 28 of the 37 points in the half helping them to a seven point halftime lead.
The third quarter saw the Voyagers came out of halftime with a lot of energy as they pushed tempo and attacked the rim. Their aggressiveness forced some easy baskets at the rim and did a lot of their damage from the free throw line going 11-12 in the quarter outscoring the Gryphons 33-22 to climb back into the game as the Gryphons defense really struggled to contain them in the quarter. The fourth quarter was turned into a slow, sluggish quarter as there were plenty of whistles which stopped the flow of the game. The Gryphons defensively struggled as they allowed David Aromalaran to score 29 points and allowed Laurentian to go 21-25 from the charity stripe. Despite the Gryphons shooting 47.1% in the second half, they allowed the Voyagers to shoot 48.3% in the half and going 4-6 from three.
The guards for Guelph had a very strong game as Dooley led the team with 20 points going 7-13 from the field, Boers had 16 points tonight going 5-10, Drew Walford coming off the bench and scoring 11 also going 5-10 and Wallace scoring eight points tonight including going 4-4 from the free throw line as all four combined to score 55 of the 79 Gryphons points tonight. Ahmed Haroon, the fourth year player scored 13 points and grabbed six rebounds as Guelph had four players in double digits tonight.
The Gryphons look to snap a three game losing streak as they host the Nipissing Lakers tomorrow night at 8 p.m. at the W.F. Mitchell Athletics Centre.
