Gaiters Top Laval on the Road

Thursday at Laval

BU      13    17    23    18   -   71
UL      15    12    20    11   -   58

This certainly was not a pretty game in the first quarter as we were awful the first 6 minutes and were not able to score. The only thing we did well was turning over the ball! We recovered from the terrible start and played better the rest of the way, but I cannot say we played that well...too many fouls and too many turnovers! We will take the road win vs. a dangerous team any day though. Especially since we were missing the inside presence of Dave Belanger and our starting PG Kurt Caro due to injury.

Jamil  Abiad 12 pts @ Laval

Matt, Kyle and PK ignited our comeback in the first quarter with their defense. However, the story of the game for us was our bench as they scored 36 pts. Big Mike had 16 pts, 11 rebounds and 3 blocked shots, but had limited playing time due to foul issues...nice to see him producing at the rate we know he can. Jamil Abiad and freshman Mathew Van Doorn played extended minutes and were integral to our success in the second half as Jona & Kyle sat the better part of the second half in foul trouble. Jamil had a career high 12 points and Mathew (aka 'White Chocolate' aka 'Choco Blanc') had 6 pts and 4 assists. Mathew is a slick passer and a very athletic guard. He looks like and has a game similar to former NBA guard Jason Williams who was nicknamed 'White Chocolate'...our guys  picked up on that right away & added the French version too!

Matt McLean returned to the form he showed late last season as he had 16 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocked shots. He knocked down a 3 point shot with a couple of minutes to go to put the game on ice and provided his usual defensive energy throughout. Majid was quiet offensively, but made a couple of timely shots. More importantly he did a great job on the glass grabbing 12 rebounds. Karim struggled early in the game, but kept things together for us in the second half.  He also did a great job rebounding as he grabbed 10 rebounds  and added 4 assists.

We close out the first semester this Saturday at UQAM @ 7 pm. (note the earlier time!). UQAM has league MVP candidate Alex Bernard and a host of skilled and athletic guards. They always play well at home and we can expect a very intense game. We hope to see you at the game!

Rod

Gaiters Move to 2-0 in RSEQ

Thursday @ Concordia

BU      20   23   11   22   -  76
CU      12   13   19   25   -  69

Concordia  was coming off a big win over Laval last week. So, we knew  they would be playing with some confidence. Especially in their own gym. Fortunately our guys matched and bettered their intensity in the first half building an 18 point lead  at the half. We were not perfect, but we did  do some things well both offensively & defensively.

Majid Naji...solid play the last few weeks.

The 2nd half was a different story. Concordia came  out and simply played harder  than us. The game got  a bit frenetic as it does in that gym at times and we (including me!) were not as composed as we could have  been. We were up 12  or  14 with 3 minutes  to go,  but Concordia did not  relent and with a couple of breaks they cut the lead to 4 at one point very briefly with under a minute to go. Some positives and some negatives in the game. Either way we will take the road win.

Kyle  led all scorers with 18 points. Big Mike had 12 points, 7 rebounds & 4 blocked shots. Jona & Karim each chipped in with 10 a piece while Kurt had 9 points, 5 rebounds & 3 assists.

We play our 3rd of 5 straight road games this  Thursday at Laval. This will be a difficult game as Laval may have the best combination of talent & athleticism in the league. They have a lot  of weapons that can be a challenge to contain. Game time is 8 pm...you will be able to  find the webcast link on www.gaiters.ca later this week. 

In other exciting news, we received our first recruiting commitment this week from 6'6 forward Owen Martel of Georgetown, ON. Owen is a high level athlete and a great kid. He is someone who will represent our program very well in the community, in the classroom and on the basketball court. He is very well coached by Steve Pettit at Georgetown District High School and Zelimir Stevanovic at IBSA, one off the premier club programs in Ontario. I believe Owen will  have an impact on our program in his first year and has a chance to be a very special  player at BU. At 6'6, with a 6'9 wingspan & close to a 40 inch vertical  jump, he will have the ability to play on the wing or inside. We are very pleased to welcome Owen to our program!

I will keep you posted!
Rod

Gaiters Win at McGill to Open RSEQ

Saturday at McGill 

BU      12    9   15   24  -  60
MU     13   15   9    22  -  59

This was the first of many brawls, so to speak, we will have with McGill this year. Both teams are physical and defensive minded which does not make for the prettiest basketball. Regardless, it was very competitive and certainly exciting at the end.

PG Kurt Caro...5 assists, 1 turnover v. McGill

We may not have had the lead for a full minute this game, but all that mattered was that we led at the end of 40 minutes. McGill took the lead early and we played catch up for the better part of the game. We did take a lead briefly in the 3rd quarter, but McGill pushed ahead midway through the 4th.

With 37 seconds to go we were down 59-52, but our guys executed well and managed to score 8 points in a very improbable 17 seconds. McGill acquiesced by missing  free throws & turning the ball over after we missed a free throw to open the door for us. In that stretch Majid scored a 3 point shot off a sideline inbounds play, Kurt scored a layup in transition & Majid scored the winning points off a 3 point shot off a baseline out of bounds play. That left McGill with 20 seconds to win the game. We defended very well and forced them into a scramble situation where they got a very good a look at the rim with 3 seconds to go that fortunately missed! After the ball got batted around Karim secured the rebound and the win.

Kyle 13 points

Coach Craig Norman did a great job preparing our guys defensively early in the week to play McGill. We did make a few mistakes, but we played hard and played as a team not giving up too many easy hoops. Offensively, Kyle & Majid (he deserves a picture on this post...I will locate 1 for next week!) each had 13 points to lead us. Karim had 11 rebounds while PK came of the bench to grab 6 rebounds, take 2 charges while playing some excellent defense. We had contributions from everyone and our team chemistry is really starting to come along. I like the direction our team is headed and getting this win is exactly what we needed.

We have one game this week. Thursday at 8 pm vs. Concordia. Both teams are 1-0 in RSEQ play. It should be a great game. Hope to see you there.
Rod 

Gaiters Topped by Cardinals

Saturday at Plattsburgh State

BU       27    37  -  64
PSU     33    34  -  67

Another tough loss on Saturday. We traveled down to Plattsburgh, NY  and faced a very athletic & physical team who reached the NCAA D3 Sweet Sixteen last season. Great environment to play in as it was similar to our gym crowd wise. We got better playing the game, just a bit disheartening losing that game. Our psyche is certainly being tested right now.

After our good start PSU got rolling and erased our 8 point lead. They went on a run that carried them to a 6 point halftime lead. The 2nd half was tight for the first few minutes until PSU went on another run climbing into a 14 point lead. Instead of crumbling, we fought back and closed their lead to 1 with a minute to go. We fouled and they converted their free throws to go up at the end. We had a couple of great looks at the hoop to tie the game, but they did not fall.

Jona  led us with 15 points while Majid and PK each added 10 points. PK  had a game high 11 rebounds and Majid continues to do a good job on the glass as he collected 9 rebounds.

Jona Bermillo, 15 pts on Saturday

Saturday we open up against a very deep McGill team, they have a whopping 20 legitimate CIS players on their roster and seem to have gotten contributions from most of them at some point during pre-season. It will be a difficult test as we are on the road playing the team that is the odds on favourite to win our league. Not sure how many players we will have dressed on Saturday, but our roster will be smaller (both in height & numbers) than we would like. Regardless, we will have to figure out how to make our own luck as we are playing the games that truly count now!

Game time is 8 pm this Saturday at McGill.
Rod