CIS men's basketball Wednesday roundup: Mustangs battle back, steal one from Gryphons 69-66

WINDSOR, Ont. - In a tight battle that came down to the final seconds, the Lancer men’s basketball team was narrowly defeated 79-77 by the No. 5 Laurier Golden Hawks on Wednesday night at the St. Denis Centre.
 
The Lancers are now 11-6 on the season and sit tied for third with the McMaster Marauders in the west division.
 
With one minute to go in the third quarter and the Lancers down by just four points, Laurier's Max Allin went on a 7-0 run by himself to end the quarter and put the Golden Hawks ahead 60-49 heading into the fourth.
 
Laurier used this momentum to build a 64-50 advantage with just 6:30 remaining. The Lancers looked to Enrico DiLoreto, who was just 1-11 at the time, to bring them back. DiLoreto exploded for 21 fourth quarter points on 6-8 shooting to bring the Lancers back and be within one with 3:15 left on the clock.
 
Laurier regained their composure to go up by five with 1:15 remaining, when Windsor’s Junior Osuntola hit a timely three to make the game 79-77 for Laurier.
 
From there neither team scored, and the Lancers had the ball with 10 seconds left in the game. With Windsor’s chance to win or force overtime, the Golden Hawks played great scrambling defence and forced the Lancers into a miss at the buzzer.
 
Diloreto finished with a game high 23 points, while Lien Phillip finished with the team’s only double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds. Josh Collins and Evan Matthews each had 13 points in the loss.
 
The Golden Hawks were led by Max Allin with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Two other Hawks finished with double-doubles as Matt Buckley had 12 points and a game high 18 rebounds, and Patrick Donnelly with 11 points 13 rebounds. Kale Harrison also contributed 18 points for the visiting Hawks.

The Lancers will now hit the road for the first of four away games when they travel to Guelph on Saturday to face the Gryphons. Game time is set for 4:00pm and can be seen live at www.ssncanada.ca.

Source: Windsor Sports Info

GUELPH, Ont. - The Guelph Gryphon men’s basketball team dropped a heartbreaking 69-66 game tonight to the Western Mustangs at the W.F. Mitchell Centre.

CIS leading scorer Ryan Barbeau led the Mustangs netting 27 points to go with seven rebounds and seven assists, as the Western Mustangs came back from a halftime deficit to defeat the Gryphons. Western now improves to 6-11 on the season, while Guelph drops below .500 and sit at 8-9.

Along with Barbeau, Western was led by Fergus’s own Ryan Higgins who added 12 points and five rebounds, while two other Mustangs added eight. As a team, the Mustangs connected on 85% of the free-throws, while hitting 41% of their field goal attempts.

Kareem Malcolm (Brampton, Ont.) once again led the Gryphon’s in scoring, tallying 18 points and nine rebounds, but shooting just 1-10 from three-point range. Zachary Angus (Burlington, Ont.) added 15 points, while Daniel McCarthy (Guelph, Ont.) chipped in 13 while grabbing eight rebounds. Guelph as a team attempted 27 three pointers do to their guard oriented line-up, yet held a 43-27 advantage on the boards.

Guelph stormed out to an early lead thanks to some timely three-pointers from their three leading scorers, and grabbed a quick 13-5 lead halfway through the opening quarter. Western was able to chip away thanks to Barbeau, who hit two three-pointers early on to keep the Guelph defence on its toes. After the first quarter, Guelph was up 21-17 behind five points each from Malcolm, McCarthy, and first year guard Eric McDonald.

The second quarter saw the Gryphons extend their lead to double digits before Higgins and Barbeua got hot from three, scoring eight and nine points respectively in the frame. Guelph held a slight 42-39 led heading into halftime. Barbeau led all scorers with 15 points, while Malcolm countered with 13 points for Guelph.

Barbeau turned up the heat in the second half with his playmaking ability, and his ball distribution allowed the Mustangs to play strong defence while Barbeau worried about the offence. Things got chippy early on between McDonald and Western’s Peter Scholtes, but cooler heads prevailed. Western outscored the Gryphons 20-16 in the third to take a 59-58 lead into the fourth, setting the stage for a wild finish.

The fourth quarter saw both teams play strong defence as neither team was able to distance themselves. Both teams struggled from the field, and it wasn’t until Malcolm’s step-back jumper that the Gryphons regained the lead. The moment was short lived however as Barbeau was able to attack the rim for the tough layup while being fouled to give the Mustangs a 67-66 lead. After missing the and one, Malcolm’s jumper fell flat, setting Barbeau up with a game clinching layup to give Western the 69-66 victory.

Guelph will look to shake off the disappointing upset and regroup when they take on the visiting Windsor Lancers Saturday, February 4th at the W.F. Mitchell Centre. Tipoff is scheduled for 4pm.

Source: Guelpg Sports Info

HAMILTON, Ont. - In front of a packed house of 1,083 fans, the McMaster men's basketball team defeated the Brock Badgers by a score of 104-60 and improved their record to 12-5 with just five regular season games left to go.

The Marauders came out flying in the first quarter, scoring an abundance of points early on while shutting down the Badgers offence from the get-go. Up 9-2 at the seven minute mark, the Marauders increased that lead to 14-2 around 5:30. Not letting up whatsoever, McMaster would allow the Badgers to score just 11 points in the first and would score a whopping 32 of their own.

A number of Marauders contributed in the first quarter including Taylor Black to get the scoring started, captain Victor Raso, Satar Wahidi with some three-pointers and Cam Michaud scoring in the paint.

In the second quarter, the Marauders started the scoring again around the 7:30 mark with a three from Raso. Brock would call a timeout at 39-13 but it wouldn't help as McMaster continued to push on the offensive. With three minutes to go in the second quarter, the Marauder hit the 50 points mark while the Badgers were left with just 15 points of their own.

Raso in particular was a major factor in the third, although with a number of rookies including Aaron Redpath, Joe Rocca and Adam Presutti. The half-time score would be 56-23 in favour of the Marauders, who were on pace to score over 100 points in the game.

Brock got the scoring started in the third quarter, but by the five minute mark, McMaster had almost extended their lead to 40 points at 69-30. Making a big impact in the third quarter for the Marauders was rookie Rocca who was scoring all over the court. Despite the Badgers scoring three's, McMaster would continue to respond. By the end of the third, McMaster lead would by 38 points.

In the fourth quarter, both teams would ease up on the scoring and the Marauders would go on to win it. Redpath would score McMaster 99th and 100th points in the game with a lay-up through the Brock defence and the final score would be 104-60 in favour of the home team.

A total of six Marauders hit double digit points on the night. Raso scored 18 points for the Marauders, Rocca added 15 and Presutti and Michaud both scored another 14 for McMaster. Nathan McCarthy scored 11 for the Marauders in the win and Redpath added another 10.

For the Badgers, Andrew Kraus was the only one to hit double-digits with 15 points. Didi Mukendi, Tshing Kasamba and Michael Williams all had eight more.

The Marauder head to Waterloo to face the Laurier Golden Hawks for the first time this season. The game starts at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.

Source: McMaster Sports Info