Rams advance to semifinals with win over Gee-Gees

OTTAWA, Ont. – The Ryerson Rams will once again be making a trip to the OUA's semi-finals after acquiring a hard fought 77-69 victory over the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees on Saturday night at Montpetit Hall. 

The contest was nail-bitingly close throughout it's entirety, with only the final quarter's point differential being greater than three-points.  The Rams had only carried a one-point lead heading into the final ten minutes of action, but slowly began to inch away from a Gee-Gees squad that seemed to run out of gas.

The game was so close in fact, that each team attempted 62 field goals in total, and each made 25 of them, for a shared total of 40.3% from the field.  Additionally, both teams made an identical seven three-points throughout the contest.  The only differentiating factor that could be distinguished between two teams was free-throw percentage. 

Out of 27 attempts at the charity stripe, the Rams connected on 20.  By contrast, the Gee-Gees were given 24 attempts at the line and only connected on 12.  That 8-point difference was the deciding factor in this contest.  

In moving away from the statistical aspect of the games it was the remarkable contributions of the Rams line-up that was able to provide the team with this victory.

Manny Diressa (Toronto, Ont.) led all scorers on the evening with 22 points, to go along with eight rebounds, five steals and two assists.  Jean-Victor Mukama (Hamilton, Ont.), who exploded for 24 points in the first-round match-up against Queen's, had a stellar evening providing 15 points to go along with nine rebounds and two assists for his team.

Next up, the Rams will face the Brock Badgers in the OUA semi-finals on February 28.

Source: Ryerson Rams