Gaiters Go 1-2 @ Dalhousie's Shoveller Tourney

Thursday January 2^nd @ Dalhousie

BU     15   15   13   21  -  64

Dal    19   18   19   16  -  72

Opening up against the home team in their own tournament is never an easy thing. Unfortunately, we were not up to the task. Dalhousie did a good job off rebounding the basketball and keeping us off balance. We never really did find a rhythm in this game. We lost Scott Ring very early in the 2^nd quarter to a deep bruise on his knee and he was done for the weekend. This did not help us. However, we had enough to give Dal a better game.

We did not have any individual performances worth noting, but Matt McLean did play with a lot of intensity and was rewarded with a  tournament allstar at the end of the weekend.

Friday January 3^rd vs. Saint Mary’s

BU        31   12   15   14  -  72

SMU     20   16    6   11  -  53

Saint Mary’s spent the better part of the 1^st semester ranked in the Top 10. However, like us they were missing key players in this game, but seemed to struggle a lot more adjusting than we did. I thought we did a good job of establishing our post game and limiting their dribble penetration. That along with controlling the tempo made all the difference.

We had good balance with 4 double digit scorers. Onnex led us with 19 while Jona & Majid had 13 each. Big Mike had 10 in limited minutes due to foul trouble.

Saturday January 4^th vs. St. Francis Xavier

BU       12   16   10   22  -  60

St.FX   14   19   12   21  -  66

When we made St.FX play halfcourt offense we had good success. When we allowed them to run we were in trouble. Their defense created some turnover that they were able run off of and they pretty much controlled the tempo for a good part of the game. With 3 minutes to go they were up 9, but we did manage to claw back to even with about 30 seconds to go before they went ahead off a nice behind the back pass in the lane for a lay-up. Out of the time-out we missed a driving lay-up that rolled off the front of the rim and from there we had to foul to catch up. St. FX put the game away at the foul line.

Jona led all scorers with 18 points while Onnex was very good scoring 16. Matt added 10 rebounds and 8 points in another good effort.

We have bye this weekend, but are back in action next week with a home & home vs. UQAM as we start our charge in RSEQ action. I will keep you posted!