AROUND OUA: Dinkins, T-Wolves shock No. 4 Marauders
Bacarius Dinkins is finding his touch on the inside, and there’s not much any team has been able to do about it recently. The big man from Jonesville Florida scored 27 points on top of 15 rebounds to lead the plucky Lakehead Thunderwolves past the CIS #4 ranked McMaster Marauders.
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Dinkins, T-Wolves shock No. 4 Marauders
Bacarius Dinkins is finding his touch on the inside, and there's not much any team has been able to do about it recently. The big man from Jonesville Florida scored 27 points on top of 15 rebounds to lead the plucky Lakehead Thunderwolves past the CIS #4 ranked McMaster Marauders.
"Our guys battled all week in practice, right up to tonight, right to the fourth quarter" said coach Manny Furtado after the game. "Limiting that team to 67 points when they average 88, making some clutch shots down the stretch, I'm really happy and proud of these guys the way they battled."
Bacarius Dinkins (photo left) went unchallenged most of the game in the post. McMaster didn't send any double teams until later in the game. The only person that slowed Dinkins down was himself, as he picked up two quick fouls in the first quarter, and sat a good spell of the second quarter on the bench with three fouls. His 27 points came in 25 minutes of total court time.
When Dinkins was on the bench, fellow posts Jack Bull and Holelsky (Mike) Theodore picked up the slack against the Marauder bigs.
The 6'8″ Australian Bull finished with 6 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.
Lakehead out-scored McMaster 25-9 in the final quarter to erase the deficit and took the lead with under four minutes to play.
Alex Robichaud, Nick Burke and Darnell Curtin all hit key three pointers late in the game to push Lakehead over the top. A huge rebounding effort late in the game was also key, with the 'Wolves out-rebounding Mac 15-4 in the final quarter, and 44-34 on the game.
For McMaster, Aaron Redpath and Leon Alexander scored 15 points apiece, with Conor Gilmore scoring 14 points. The trio of Marauders combined to go 15-of-39 from the field, and 7-of-10 from the free throw line.
The two teams rematch tomorrow at 8pm.
Audio broadcast available via CILU Radio 102.7FM
Source: Lakehead Thunderwolves
Carleton rains threes to topple Lions in 96-53 landslide
(OTTAWA, ON) — Following a disappointing start to the second half of the season, the Ravens found their guiding light on Friday evening in a dominant display of basketball, as Carleton disposed of York, 96-53, in a one-sided affair at the Ravens' Nest.
The Ravens (9-2) found their scoring touch against the Lions (3-8), who fell victim to a season-high barrage of fifteen 3-pointers from a potent Carleton attack. Fifth-year guard Gavin Resch (Ottawa, ON) knocked down 6 threes (6-10 3PT FG) for a game-high 20 points, while fourth-year player Connor Wood (Guelph, ON) went 4-6 from three-point land, finishing with 18 points, his highest scoring output since dropping 27 points on Nipissing (Nov. 27.15).
Carleton blanketed York with an effective outside shooting strategy right from the git-go, pulling away 26-12 after the first quarter. The Ravens connected on five 3's in the opening ten minutes, leaving York shell shocked.
The Ravens continued to push the envelope in the second as Connor Wood hit consecutive shots from beyond the arc to open up an 18-point lead at the 9:20 mark of the quarter. Brimming with confidence, Carleton increased its lead to a 47-24 stranglehold at the half.
York impressed to start the second half as the team hit four 3's of their own to keep the score from getting out of hand. However, the Ravens showed their full firepower with another five three-pointers in the third quarter, including four from Resch in a 3-minute 27 second span in the bottom half of the frame. Carleton led 76-45 after three.
The fourth quarter played out similarly with Carleton continuing its scoring assault on the hapless Lions. The Ravens buried York, 20-8, in the final act of the evening.
Carleton's 43-point margin of victory was its third largest of the 2015/16 OUA regular season, while York's 53 points total was its lowest scoring output of the season across all competitions.
Lions first-year guard Jayden Frederick scored 13 points to lead York, and Philip Gillen, a junior guard, added 12 points. The Lions were playing without leading scorer Shane Reader and his 14.9 PPG scoring average.
Carleton committed a season-low 8 turnovers in the win, and added a season-high 13 steals, 3 of which came from the quick hands of point guard Kaza Kajami-Keane (Ajax, ON).
Ravens forward Guillaume Payen-Boucard (Montreal, QC) was a factor as well, producing 19 points for Carleton on 8 of 11 shooting.
Following tonight's solid win, the Ravens await the Queen's Gaels, a team that will be looking for its first victory over Carleton since 1998.
Source: Carleton Ravens
L'Africain's thirty-point night paces Gee-Gees past Gaels
Mike L'Africain counted 30 points in Ottawa's 76-60 win over Queen's on Friday night, the tenth victory of the regular season for the no. 2 ranked team in the nation. The fifth-year point guard began the night showing off his passing and came on strong in the second half, netting 20 points in the game's later stages.
L'Africain finished with seven assists, many of which to Nathan McCarthy who was 8-for-10 from the floor for 16 points along with seven rebounds. His counterpart Brody Maracle added 13 points.
"Coach told me to score so I tried to get in there, but I didn't shoot it too well," said a modest L'Africain. "Every day is a process of getting better. We took a hard week of practice and really went after each other, especially on the defensive end."
With L'Africain feeding McCarthy, Ottawa built a big 34-15 lead midway through the second quarter. The Burlington, Ont. native was dazzling down low early, using his length and confident post moves to establish control.
A late three from Queen's brought the lead within 11 before Sukhpreet Singh added a pair of free throws to close out the second quarter with the score 40-31. Singh led the Gaels with 18 points but struggled from the floor, shooting 1-of-6 from three.
The Gee-Gees defensive effort was consistent all evening, but head coach James Derouin was quick to point out that Queen's grabbed 17 offensive rebounds.
"We had to take what the defence was giving us, which was layups because they were staying at home on our shooters. That strategy takes us out of our ball movement and that threw us off a few times. With this group we can grind out wins."
This game marks the seventh time this season that Ottawa has held opponents to 61 or fewer points.
The Gee-Gees will meet the York Lions on Saturday night at Montpetit Hall. Tipoff is at 8 p.m. The Lions (3-8) were thumped 96-53 at Carleton on Friday.
Source: Ottawa Gee-Gees
Lakers can't close out Blues, fall by four
There was no shortage of drama and excitement Friday night at the RJS Athletic Centre.
The Nipissing Lakers men's basketball team and the Toronto Varsity Blues went toe-to-toe all night, with each team grabbing momentum, each team taking leads and running with them and each team fighting back.
In the end, the Lakers struggled to close out the game, allowing 21 points in the final quarter, surrendering a lead and falling 73-69 in the end.
The first three quarters were almost completely even.
After 10 minutes, the teams were deadlocked 17-17 as neither team held a lead bigger than three points.
In the second, the Lakers stepped up their game and took control of the game, outscoring Toronto 22-14 and thanks to their strong quarter, had a 39-31 lead at the half.
Toronto bounced back in a big way in the third quarter, outscoring the Lakers by only three, but they did post 21 points, as they put up 42 points in the second half.
After Toronto cut the lead to five after 30 minutes of play, Nipissing was in a position to close things out with a solid fourth quarter, but the Blues had other plans.
They put up 21 more points, for the second consecutive quarter, and turned a five point deficit into a four point win, picking up nine points – 21-12 – on Nipissing in the final frame.
Some drama capped off the game, as Toronto missed a free throw, but the officials concluded that they called for the buzzer at the incorrect time and allowed the Blues player to re-shoot.
He made both shots and the Lakers were unable to climb back into the game, despite a late three pointer by Joey Puddister which made it a two point game at the time.
All the drama, with less than a minute left, wrapped up an exciting and entertaining game.
Leading the Lakers were Marcus Lewis who put up 21 points, Jerron Rhodes added 15 and Puddister scored 11 in the Nipissing defeat.
The Lakers are back at it Saturday when they host the Ryerson Rams at 8 p.m.
Source: Nipissing Lakers
The Voyageurs came into this game looking to hand Ryerson, the top ranked team in the CIS, a rare loss. Unfortunately for the V's and the Ben Avery faithful the Rams had other plans.
It was clear from the tip that the visitors were simply the better team. Their offense seemed to run circles around the LU defensive front, getting quality looks possession after possession. At times it looked like the only thing that could stop the Rams were the Rams themselves. This happened often enough as well, so much so that the V's had a couple windows to take a commanding lead in the game. Regrettably, the game didn't pan out any better for the Voyageurs on the other end either, preventing them to take advantage of the Rams' miscues. Rarely did Ryerson's defense allow the V's to get a good look to score. When they did however, Laurentian drilled their shots with relative success. Because of all this, the Voyageurs quickly found themselves down big.
In the second half, the story was more of the same. Despite a better outing from the Voyageurs, they never could bring the deficit down to single digits. The Rams continued their lockdown defensive play and complemented that with an electric offense good for 41 second half points.
For the Voyageurs, it was Anthony Iacoe who led the way with 24 points, 15 of those off of three pointers. The visitor's were propelled to victory thanks to a solid outing from Aaron Best who dropped 19 points and six rebounds.
Although not their worst game, the Voyageurs never seemed to be in the running to grab the victory. At the same time, Ryerson certainly did not play their best game, perhaps solidify their spot as Canada's best team even more.
The Voyageurs are back in action tomorrow to take on the Toronto Varsity Blues (9-6).
Source: Laurentian Voyaguers