CIS men's basketball Wednesday roundup: Hawks shutdown Gryphons for 16th win

Hamilton, Ont. - The McMaster men's basketball team hosted the Western Mustangs on Wednesday night at Burridge Gymnasium in their second last home game of the regular season. Cam Michaud was McMaster's high scorer on the night with a game-high 23 points and 6 rebounds in the 77-63 win.
 
Two three-pointers would get the Marauders started for the night, coming from captains Cam Michaud and Victor Raso. With good defence on either end of the court, it would keep the game low scoring and with 4:30 on the clock in the first, the Marauders would have a three point lead at 8-5. The Mustangs would tie it at 8 with three minutes to go, but the quarter would end 15-10 in favour of McMaster with three points from Raso to end the quarter.
 
The beginning of the second would see McMaster go on an 8-0 run, with six of those points coming from Michaud. Up 23-10, the Mustangs would be forced to call a timeout. Despite the timeout, the Mustangs would be unable to cool off the Marauders, as the half ended with the home team up by 10 with a score of 37-27.
 
The Marauders continued to push on offence in the third quarter, with Michaud and Raso really making the difference. Western's struggles on offence would be highlighted by some great defence from McMaster and on the other end, the Marauders would be making the most of opportunities to score as well as rebound offensively.
 
A 20 point lead would be built up by McMaster in the third, with contributions from the captains, as well as rookie Aaron Redpath and Taylor Black. The Marauders would lead 63-45 going into the final quarter of the game.
 
It was in the fourth when the Marauders cooled off on the offence. Western's best efforts were both forward in playing catch-up to the large McMaster lead, but would continually be shut out, unable to break the double-digit lead.
 
That large lead would finally be broken down around 2:30 when a number of completed foul shots by the Mustangs would get them within three at 70-61. Flirting with that nine point lead, the Marauders held on in the final minutes to win it 77-63.
 
Cam Michaud was McMaster's high scorer on the night with a game-high 23 points and 6 rebounds. Rookie Aaron Redpath was named the Big Mac Player of the Game for his 17 points and Victor Raso scored 13 points and added 7 rebounds.
 
For the Mustangs, Peter Scholtes was the Big Mac Player of the Game for his 20 points and teammate Ryan Barbeau matched that with 20 of his own. Greg Morrow had 10 points and six rebounds.
 
The Marauders travel to Guelph to take on the Gryphons on Saturday at 3:00 p.m.

Source: McMaster Sports Info

WATERLOO, Ont. - Kale Harrison of Stratford, Ont., and Matthew Buckley of Waterloo, Ont., each posted double-doubles Wednesday night as the No. 6 Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks (16-3) defeated the Guelph Gryphons (8-11) by a score of 110-69.

Despite the win, the Hawks got off to another slow start as Guelph held an early lead in the opening quarter. Late in the quarter, guard Travis Berry of St. Catharines, Ont., came off the bench and sparked the purple and gold on a 7-0 run to close the quarter as Laurier grabbed a slim 25-23 lead.

Laurier turned up their offensive game in the second quarter thanks to some strong work in the post by Buckley as they took a 53-43 lead at the half.

In the second half, the Hawks showed why are one of the top teams in the nation as Harrison scored at will while Laurier shutdown the Gryphons defensively, allowing them to scoring just 26 points in the third and fourth quarters en route to the big win.

Harrison had a second-consecutive strong game for Laurier scoring 25 points and pulling down 10 rebounds in just 24 minutes of court time. He finished the game 7-of-13 from the floor and made 10 of his 11 free throw attempts. As for Buckley, he played a team-high 34 minutes and finished the game with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Kyle Enright of Oakville, Ont., Maxwell Allin of Chatham, Ont., and William Coulthard of Oakville, Ont., all managed to reach double-digits in the win as well, finishing with 16, 15 and 10 points respectively.

As for Guelph, they were led on the evening by guard Daniel McCarthy of Guelph, Ont., who had a team-high 20 points in the loss.

The Hawks will look to start another win streak Saturday afternoon when they host the Windsor Lancers (12-7) at the Athletic Complex. Game time is set for 4 p.m.

Source: Laurier Sports Info