AROUND OUA: L’Africain hits game-winner as No. 3 Gee-Gees beat rival No. 1 Ravens
The intensity was ratcheted up once more in the saga that is the men’s basketball rivalry between the Ottawa Gee-Gees and the Carleton Ravens and Saturday night’s first installment of the 2015-16 season required a breath-taking final two minutes to determine a winner. Fifth-year point guard Mike L’Africain came through as the hero with the game-winning shot, putting Ottawa ahead for good 75-73 with 46 seconds remaining.
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Gee-Gees top Carleton, L'Africain hits game-winner
The intensity was ratcheted up once more in the saga that is the men's basketball rivalry between the Ottawa Gee-Gees and the Carleton Ravens and Saturday night's first installment of the 2015-16 season required a breath-taking final two minutes to determine a winner. Fifth-year point guard Mike L'Africain came through as the hero with the game-winning shot, putting Ottawa ahead for good 75-73 with 46 seconds remaining.
L'Africain was in position to give Ottawa, now 8-0 in regular season play, the win after a pair of Caleb Agada free throws had tied the game. The Gee-Gees went on a 9-2 run to close out the game, aided by tremendous defensive rebounding. Agada finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds and L'Africain counted 17 points and 6 assists.
Ottawa's fifth-year point guard brought the ball down the court then accelerated into the paint on the left, spinning to clear space for a fade-away jumper. "As soon as I jumped, I knew it was money. It's one of my favourite shots to take and I was working on it all week in my head," said L'Africain. "It's a statement win but to us it doesn't mean anything until we get to the last game."
"Our defence kept us close and rebounding was the stat that changed the game today," said Gee-Gees head coach James Derouin. "Matt Plunkett played tough, with an edge under the rim that allowed him to come away with big two handed rebounds - that made a difference."
"I was just boxing out my guy and Caleb came flying in," said Plunkett of a key rebound in the final posessions. "We know Carleton is a physical team and you have to come in prepared to get hit. We kept our heads and didn't get rattled by it, especially in the clutch."
Kaza Kajami-Keane of the Ravens led all scorers with 24 points, backed up by 20 from Guillaume Boucard.
The lead changed hands nine times in the game. Ottawa led by four midway through the second quarter, coming back from a 22-13 which was Carleton's largest lead, one minute into the frame. Caleb Agada made an electrifying sprint down the court after stripping Marcus Anderson of the ball, beating the buzzer with a two-handed dunk.
"Winning in this gym is certainly something that we wanted to check off our list," acknowledged Derouin. "We kept composed defensively, getting stops and winning the rebounding. I'm hoping that our veterans now that have been here for all three wins over them know that the job is not done."
The Gee-Gees will travel to Toronto next weekend, facing the Varsity Blues (3-4), and the Ryerson Rams (6-1).
Source: Ottawa Gee-Gees
WATERLOO, ON - The No. 4 ranked Brock men's basketball team (21-4 overall, 8-1 OUA) improved to 8-1 in OUA conference play as they defeated the Waterloo Warriors by the score of 81-69 Saturday afternoon on the road.
Waterloo held a 10-9 lead midway through the first quarter, before Brock's offense answered with a 14-2 run to take a 23-12 lead after 10 minutes. Brock held a 47-34 lead at the half.
In the final frame, Brock led 81-57 with four minutes remaining. Waterloo closed out the contest with a 12-0 run as the Badgers scoring went cold going 0-for-6 from the floor.
Leading the Badgers scoring were the duo of Dani Elgadi (Waterloo, ON) and Johneil Simpson (Toronto, ON) who recorded 24 points each. Simpson also grabbed 11 reboubds for the double-double.
With his 24 points, Elgadi moves into 16th all-time in Brock career scoring with 1422, surpassing Mike Kemp (1400), Terry Rigg (1403) and Brian Bleich (1413).
Matt Marshall (Burlington, ON) chipped in with 10 points and seven rebounds while Ryan Bennett (Toronto, ON) and Zachary Angelini (Hamilton, ON) both added nine points each.
In double figures for the Warriors were Muhammad Anwar (16 pts, 13 reb), Dylan Phillips (15 pts), Ben Davis (15 pts) and Jon Ravenhorst (13 pts).
The Badgers shot 38.1% (32-for-84) from the field, 26.9% (7-for-26) from beyond the arc and 76.9% (10-for-13) from the charity stripe. Waterloo went 25-for-68 (36.8%) from the field, just 3-for-19 (15.8%) from long range and 16-for-24 (66.7%) from the free throw line.
The Badgers next action is Wednesday, January 20th at 8pm when they host the nationally ranked Western Mustangs at the Bob Davis Gymnasium.
Source: Brock Badgers
No. 6 McMaster hands Golden Hawks fourth straight loss
WATERLOO, Ont. (January 16, 2016) - The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks men's basketball team suffered their second loss of the week at the hands of a nationally-ranked opponent as they lost 105-81 to the No. 6 McMaster Marauders at the Athletic Complex on Saturday afternoon.
The twenty-four point loss reflected the strong Marauder defensive effort, along with their significantly better shooting precision and second-chance points throughout the four quarters.
McMaster lead for the majority of the game, only giving up the lead twice by setting a high intensity and tempo game that Laurier struggled to match. Early in the second quarter, McMaster had generated a healthy lead that left the Hawks in a deep hole by half.
Laurier picked up a bit of momentum in the third, managing to outscore their opponents, but the deficit developed in the first half hindered their ability to fully bounce back, ultimately resulting in a loss.
After missing five games due to injury, McMaster forward Connor Gilmore of Etobicoke, Ont., displayed success in his third game back, sinking a total of thirty-two points for the Mauraders, his highest count of the season.
Matt Chesson of Whitby Ont., had another strong game as Laurier's number one offensive threat on the court. Powerful drives, height dominance and capitalization on short jumpers down in the paint enabled him generate a new career-high of twenty-three points.
Marauder defenders targeted Hawks leading scorer Will Coulthard of Oakville, Ont., however, that did not stop him from becoming the third Golden Hawk in history to reach 1400 points in a career. Coulthard finished the game with 10 points, giving him 1408 as a member of the purple and gold, as he joins Kale Harrison and Max Allin as the only Laurier players to reach the scoring milestone.
The Hawks (4-5) look to end a now four-game losing streak and over take the Nipising Lakers next Friday, January 22 at the Robert J Surtees Student Athletics Centre in North Bay, Ont. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m.
Source: Laurier Golden Hawks
Lancers edge visiting Thunderbirds
The Lancer men's basketball team defeated the Algoma Thunderbirds 87-80 on Saturday night at the St. Denis Centre.
With the win, the Lancers improve to 5-5 and sit atop the west division standings, while the Thunderbirds fall to 1-9 and sit in fifth the division.
Coming off their first win of the season on Friday night against Western, Algoma came out confident, strong, and led the game 37-34 at the half. Despite the Lancers shooting an outstanding 46% from behind the three point line in the half, Algoma's Reng Gum had four blocks in the half to help Algoma maintain the lead.
In the second half, Windsor pulled ahead off of some excellent 51% shooting from the field. Senior Alex Campbell once again led the Blue & Gold with 21 points. Marko Kovac put up an impressive 17 points while Isiah Osborne and Tyler Persaud had 15 and 12 points, respectively.
Windsor will now travel to Hamilton on Wednesday night to face the McMaster Marauders at 8:00pm. The game can be seen live on www.oua.tv.
Source: Windsor Lancers
Voyageurs fall to rival Lakers 84-73
In their first game after the winter break the Voyageurs looked lost throughout the majority of the game, leading to a 84-73 loss at the hands of the Nipissing Lakers.
Despite a serviceable first quarter in which the V's scored 15 of their 25 first half points, the group was unable to keep up this pace in the game. Nipissing on the other hand, elevated their game in the 2nd quarter dropping 26 points in the period alone.
The second half saw the Voyageurs improve but not enough to grab the victory. They came within eight points of the Lakers' lead but Nipissing countered with 43 2nd half points to secure their second win of the season.
It was a game of 'pick your poison' for LU as they couldn't establish a consistent offensive attack nor were they able to contain Nipissing's scorers.
Said coach Shawn Swords, "Once again we were beaten on the boards. Our defense in the half court improved but couldn't keep it up without fouling. We showed lots of rust offensively. We need a good week of practice to get ready for Waterloo and Laurier."
The Voyageurs will look to bounce back in their first home game of 2016 next Friday versus the Waterloo Warriors (1-9).
Source: Laurentian Voyageurs
AVeteran trio leads Rams over Gaels
TORONTO – In just his second game this season, Kadeem Green was back in fine form, posting a line of 16 points, three rebounds and two blocks. He also was the player to finally stop Gaels centre Ryall Stroud, who had scored eight straight before Green re-entered the game in the third quarter.
"It feels great, seeing as this is my second game back, it's great to match up against someone with a similar game to myself who can push me defensively and offensively," said Green on the matchup with Stroud.
Stroud paced Queen's, with a team-high 25 points as well as five rebounds, three assists and two blocks. Senior guard Sukhpreet Singh added 24 points and three assists as well.
Aaron Best was the leading scorer for the Rams scoring a game high 28 points and grabbing 7 rebounds.
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"I'm just trying to let the game come to me, feel it out a little bit. Just get a feel for how the defence is going to play me and go from there," said Best on the scoring burst in just his second start back from injury.
The first half was a very even yet sloppy affair, where both teams tried feeling each other out from the opening tip. After the first quarter the score was 25-24 in favour of the Gaels, and the second quarter was much of the same until an Adika Peter-McNeilly 75 foot buzzer beater gave the Rams a 43-39 advantage going into the break. Peter-McNeilly finished with 18 points, 12 assists and 5 rebounds.
"We had to do our work a little bit earlier in the post, I think that guys were getting deep seals on us, one dribble layups. Just work it a little earlier, bump them at the free throw line before they get to the block and we made a little adjustment, we tried to double the post off the bounce and it seemed to work," said head coach Patrick Tatham on halftime adjustments the team made to limit the Queen's big men in the post.
To sway momentum in the third quarter the Rams put on their full court press, which led to a 14-0 run and the team never looked back from there, cruising through the remainder of the third and the fourth to the eventual 16 point victory.
"We have a lot of athletes and horses, and it works to our advantage to speed teams up, we just have to do it without fouling. There have been times where we've been doing it with some fouling and it hasn't been as effective. We have so many athletes, why not speed up the game," said Tatham on the press that has been the key to the Rams success in their past two games.
The Rams move to 6-1 and retain first place in the OUA East with the victory, and will set their sights on next weekend's massive doubleheader against Ottawa and Carleton at Coca-Cola Court.
Source: Ryerson Rams
