December is Community Month!

Just an update on what our guys have been doing aside from writing exams in December.

It has been a productive month...it looks like our guys have done very well academically. As a coach, winning the final game of the semester and seeing some great grades makes for a better Christmas Break!

In addition to training and studying, our guys have been busy helping out in the community. On Saturday December 6th our guys raised close to $600 bagging groceries at Provigo Lennoxville for
the Alexander Galt Christmas Basket Fund. This is an initiative started by Gaiter alum Charles Kobelt and we have made this an annual tradition for the past 8 years. We have generated close to $5000 for the charity in that time.

Galt Sports Concentration w/ the Gaiters! 

Our guys have also been involved in the local basketball community. Last week they had an opportunity to spend some time with the Alexander Galt Sport Concentration Program who also uses gym space at BU. BU Men's Assistant Coach Steve Dunn heads the basketball part of Galt's Sports Concentration and it is great to see 30 to 50 high school kids in the BU gyms during the day getting better playing OUR game!

Jr Gaiters...18 strong! 

This past weekend the inaugural version of the Jr Gaiter basketball program played their first games at a local jamboree in Sherbrooke. The Jr Gaiters made up of local grade 4, 5 & 6 kids (many of whom are children of BU alumni) won their 2 games in convincing fashion. Sunday morning they may have met there match though as they 'played' against our BU guys in a bit of a scrimmage! Regardless, they enjoyed being on the court with the guys they look up to in more ways than one. It was a good start & our plan is to grow this program and help develop our talent in the region.





From everyone in our program, we would like to wish you a happy and safe holiday season!

Positive Finish to 1st Semester

Saturday at Concordia

BU          13    13    17    23   -   66
CU          25     8     15    12   -   60

The good thing about blowing a 20 point 2nd quarter lead the week before vs. Laval was that when we got down 25-9 in the 1st quarter vs. Concordia we knew the game was far from over. So, it hurt to lose a winnable game the week before, but it really provided us with an experience that helped us hang in Saturday. With a team as young as ours there is no shortage of teachable moments!

As mentioned, we were down big early at Concordia. However, our guys just kept grinding and we really played pretty well the final 33 minutes of the game. We never did make a huge run, but we played hard defensively without fouling, rebounded well (41-30 in our favour) and took care of the basketball with a very respectable 14 turnovers.

Freshman Forward Nick Harvey

We took our first lead with about 7 minutes to go and never relinquished the lead in the final 4:50 of the game. We had a lot of solid performances in the this game from our freshmen...Yassin Naji played some excellent D & grabbed an offensive rebound which sealed the win, Austin Macklem provided 19 minutes of turnover free basketball with some good D and 5 points, Abdul had 8 second half points which keyed our run, Big Jonah gave us some good minutes off the bench & is getting better (& fitter, he has lost over 55 pounds since August!) every day, but Nick Harvey who was returning to the line-up in a full time capacity after a concussion was the guy that really stood out from a freshmen perspective. He had 11 points & 13 rebounds in 26 minutes. He dominated the glass and made some key plays at crucial times. He, like a few of our freshmen, has a chance to be a special player here.

Jona Bermillo took over the 4th quarter scoring 11 of his 19 points down the stretch. Pete Weston continues to provide consistent play in the backcourt with Jona as he added 12 while playing a solid all around game.

The win leaves us at 1-3 in league play with only McGill having a record of better than 2-2. For a team that has had up to 7 freshmen figure prominently in our playing rotation we are not in bad shape. There have been some trying times due to our youth, but this team is a lot of fun to coach. Their work ethic & character allows them to get better each week. This bodes well for us heading into the New Year.

Also, just wanted publicly congratulate Gaiter alum,  Matt McLean, who was drafted by the NBL London Lightning. London is one of the top franchises in Canada's premier pro league and we want to wish Matt the very best when he attends their training camp in early December!  Matt has really worked hard to become a player and their is no doubt he would be a solid addition to their club.

We don't play again until January 7th at UQAM. Just a post Christmas Training Camp and no tournament this holiday season. I would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season!
Rod

Gaiters Topped By Laval

Saturday vs. Laval

BU          27    23     5    21   -   76
UL          17    24    17   25   -   83

We had an opportunity to show how good we can be and how young we can be at times in this game. We shot 70% from the floor in the first half and had a 20 point lead at one point. However, we had 18

Freshman Forward Duncan Lambert

turnovers in the 1st half and 13 in the 3rd quarter! So despite shooting 48% from the floor and out-rebounding Laval 41-28 we lost because we did not take care of the ball.

We had some careless 1st quarter turnovers that we recovered from, but the wheels started to fall off in the final 5 minutes of the 2nd quarter and the 3rd quarter. However, despite having committed 31 turnovers in the first 3 quarters we were still only down 3 heading into the 4th. Unfortunately Laval had seized control of the momentum and we did not show that we have what it takes YET to recover from that. A lot of freshmen moments, but a lot of positives and much to learn from this.

Pete scored 19 points which was tops for us. Abdul & Jona had 15 & 14 respectively. Dave had 11 points, as did freshman Duncan Lambert. Duncan has been solid all year in practice and is earning more court time each game.

Saturday we close out the 1st semester at Concordia before our guys start final exams next week. The games are in the afternoon with the women playing @ 2:00 and the men playing @ 4:00. Hope to see you there!
Rod

Tough Start to League Play

Thursday @ UQAM

BU           12     14    17    32   -  75
UQAM     21    14    16    28   -  79

Jona...25 pts & 6 assists

As you can tell from the line score above, we essentially lost the game in the 1st quarter. We allowed ourselves to get bullied in the first quarter by an older crew. Regardless, I was happy our guys continued to battle despite a not so great start.

The 4th quarter got pretty exciting as we closed a double digit UQAM lead to 2 in the last couple of minutes. A couple of untimely turnovers hurt our cause, but overall our guys showed good poise. Jona almost single handedly brought us back scoring 20 points in the 4th quarter.  Unfortunately, it was not quite enough.

Jona led all scorers with 25 points & 6 assists. Dave added 18 & 7 rebounds. Abdul had 17 points and 6 rebounds while fellow freshman Yassin Naji collected a career high 11 rebounds.


Saturday vs. McGill (CIS #3)

BU          16    19    19    14   -   68
MU         20    26    24    26   -   94

Pete Weston...19 pts vs. McGill

We had trouble defending McGill all night. Even worse, we could not protect our own backboard as they had 24 offensive rebounds to our 21 defensive rebounds. The lack of rebounding combined with the 6 more turnovers than they had turned into 31 more shots for McGill than we attempted. Impossible to win with those stats and amazing that we actually hung around in the game that long...it was an 8 point game midway through the 3rd quarter.

McGill is very good and I would say could be ranked higher than #3 in the CIS. We competed for stretches, but as we found out against Carleton...the best teams in the CIS do not take possessions off. We are not there yet, but are getting better with each passing week.

Pete was our top scorer with 19 points. Jona & Abdul each kicked in 12 while Dave had a quiet 10 points.

Saturday we host Laval. They have some talented seniors who are always a challenge to stop. Defensively we will have to make some strides this week!

I will keep you posted.
Rod

Gaiter Split on New England Tour

Friday @ Worcester Polytechnic Institute

BU        32    45   -   77
WPI      35    32   -   67

This was definitely a good win for us. WPI beat us last year in Lennoxville and is a very good NCAA D3 program who does not lose too many games in their own gym.

We had a slow start and we were in risk of getting blown out. Fortunately we regained our composure

Freshman Wing Abdul Kamane

and reduced at 10 point deficit to 3 at the halftime buzzer. We were pretty solid on both ends of the court in the 2nd half and took control of the game in the final 5 minutes.

Big Jonah Fogg helped keep us in the game in first half scoring all 8 of his career high points in the 1st frame. He and fellow freshman Abdul Kamane were the lone bright spots in the 1st half offensively. Freshman Yassin Naji was excellent defensively after a weak first few minutes.

Abdul led all scorers with 21 points & added 4 assists. Jona & Pete chipped in with 19 & 14 respectively. Yasmin had 7 points & 7 rebounds in a nice performance off the bench.


Saturday @ American International College

BU      26     26   -   52
AIC     40     36   -   76

The story of this game as our 32 turnovers. We have not been close to that since early October. AIC certainly did a good job defensively, but we did not help ourselves. Despite that we got better this game and made some mistakes we will hopefully learn from. This group has been pretty resilient and has shown progress. So, a game like this should be a beneficial experience...we should find that out Thursday @ UQAM!

3rd Yr Guard Pete Weston

Pete led us in scoring with 17 points. Dave had 11 and 6 rebounds. Not much else to speak of from an offensive perspective. We had some decent moments defensively, but when you turn the ball over you are not putting your defense in a position to be successful!












This week we commence RSEQ League play. Thursday we travel to UQAM for an 8pm tip-off. UQAM is a team with talent & athleticism. There will be no easy victories in our league as each of the other 4 teams are experienced and talented. If Thursday is jumping into the frying pan, then Saturday is jumping into the fire! We host McGill and they are currently ranked #3 in the CIS. They return everyone from last year and have added a transfer & recruits that will make them even tougher. Both games will be excellent challenges for our young group and we look forward to having the support of the BU faithful both in Montreal Thursday and back here at Mitchell on Saturday.

I will keep you posted.
Rod

Gaiters @ Guelph & Hawk Challenge

Thursday @ Guelph

BU      14   16   17     8  -   55

UG      18   16   25   15  -   74

We picked up an exhibition game at Guelph before heading to KW for the Laurier Hawk Challenge. This game was a grind. After a first half where we did not play particularly well and turned the ball over 18 times, we still managed to be in the game. The 3rd quarter got off to a decent start and we took a 40-39 lead a few minutes into the quarter. However, the lead was short lived as Guelph went on a run that we could not answer. We were a step slow all night and Guelph did a good job of never allowing us to get going. 

Dave Belanger, 3rd Yr Captain

Dave Belanger led us with 18 points and 11 rebounds. He was one of the lone bright spots for us and has been playing some excellent basketball the last 2 weekends. Jona Bermillo added 10 points. Turnovers were our undoing despite out rebounding Guelph 41-25.

WLU Hawk Challenge

Friday @ Wilfred Laurier  

BU          17   16   22   17  -  72

WLU      20   17   30   14  -   81

Laurier is high scoring team that shoots the ball very well. We did a pretty decent defensive job for most of the game with the exception of the 3rd quarter. Poor 3rd quarters were a common theme for us this weekend. In the 2nd half, we lost them in transition a couple of times & also did a poor job of

Jona Bermillo, 4th Yr Captain

rebounding. These 2 factors opened up the game for Laurier and their 3 point shooters took advantage of that. After limiting them to 2-10 from the 3 point line in the first half, they went 6-10 in the 2nd half which included some daggers that put the game away. 

Dave led us again with 16 points and 7 rebounds. Jona had 14 points  Freshman guard Austin Macklem had a nice game grabbing 7 rebounds and scoring 6 points. 

Saturday vs. Laurentian

BU        18   21   22   18  -  79

LU        13   17   32   15  -  77 

This was a well played and entertaining game…it just had nice flow to it for both teams. Defensively, we were very good with the exception of the 3rd quarter again, but offensively we had better timing & good ball movement. We executed well and had a very nice balance of scoring inside and out. After Pete Weston knocked in his 5th 3pt shot of the first half at the buzzer we had a 9 point lead at the break. However, the Voyageurs outscored us 22-10 in the first 6 minutes of the 3rd quarter erasing that lead. Our guys, to their credit, did not fold after surrendering a nice lead and we battled to keep it close. In the 4th quarter, freshman Nick Harvey carried the load as he scored inside and had a key defensive stop with less than 10 seconds remaining when we had a 1 point lead to secure the win.

Pete led all scorers with 21 points. Dave was very good again with 16 points & 9 rebounds. Nick & Abdul added 12 & 11 points respectively. Jona only had 6 points, but he led us defensively and controlled the game for us throughout.

Once again it was great to have a few BU alumni out to watch us play. A special thanks to Blair Shier who flew in from Vancouver to see the games and bless us with a season's worth of action photos which you will see on this blog each week. Blair is an avid photographer and we really have benefited from his willingness to take the time to not only travel, but take thousands of pictures of our team in action for the past several years. It adds a lot to our program and we are sincerely appreciative. Very fortunate to have alumni who contribute in so many different ways! 

Next up for us is our US tour in Massachusetts  November 6th & 7th at Worcester Polytechnic (NCAA D3) and American International College (NCAA D2). Both teams were conference champions last year and we expect two very difficult games that will prepare us for our RSEQ schedule which opens up on November 12th at UQAM.

I will keep you posted!
Rod

A Couple of Wins @ House-Laughton

House-Laughton Tournament at Carleton University


Friday vs. Toronto

BU        19    17   19   26  -  81
UofT     18    17   18   23  -  76

We certainly looked a lot better this weekend than we had a couple of weeks back at Nipissing. Our guys have worked hard in practice and it paid off this weekend. Still a long way to go though as we were quickly reminded of Sunday vs. Carleton!

This was a pretty well played game by 2 young teams and it was tight throughout. We did a decent job of executing offensively and not turning over the ball. Defensively we played hard as a unit and got some key stops down the stretch when we needed them.


Pete Weston led us with 21 points. Dave Belanger played his best game to date in a Gaiter uniform contributing 19 points & 5 rebounds along with some excellent defense. Jona Bermillo, who was excellent all weekend, had 14 points. Freshman, Abdul Kamane chipped in 10 points and 6 rebounds.  
We would also have to give an assist to Cathy & Bryan McLean (& Matt!) who hosted our team for a pre-game meal Friday afternoon. Much appreciated as always!!


Saturday vs. Acadia

BU      19   15   21   24  -  79
AU      14   17   21   16  -  68

Winning Friday certainly gave us some confidence and some hope that we could compete with Acadia. We figured we would have our hands full though as Acadia had played Carleton pretty tough the night before and we are well aware that there will be no easy games for us this year!  Fortunately, we got off to a good start and Jona Bermillo stepped up to carry us with18 first half points. He only scored 2 in the 2nd half, but did a real nice job running our team.

The 3rd quarter was a bit shaky as Acadia had us on our heels, but we managed to respond and took control of a tight game in the last 4 minutes of the game. A great sign for our young team. Abdul was phenomenal in the 2nd half scoring 23 of his game high 25 points in the 3rd & 4th quarter. He also added 8 rebounds. As previously mentioned, Jona had 20 points while Dave & Pete added 12 a piece. Freshman Nick Harvey was excellent all weekend and he led us with 9 rebounds and some excellent interior D.


Sunday vs. Carleton

BU      17   14   14   15  -  60
CU      24   25   18   21  -  88

Carleton is still very good! Despite graduating some key pieces they are still the gold standard of CIS basketball. Regardless, we played hard and we pushed them at times. Unfortunately, we just don't have the experience, collective strength & polish offensively at this point to be able to challenge them for 40 minutes. After a good start, things started to slide when we began to turn the ball over vs. their vaunted defense. Your offense will often look decent until you face Carleton. We started to make mistakes we had not made all weekend and they quickly capitalized taking control of the game.

It was a great experience playing Carleton and we will learn a lot from this game. Jona was very good again scoring 19 points. Pete had 14 while Nick had a nice game with 9 points & 6 rebounds.

A special thanks to the BU alumni who made it out to our games this weekend. Your support is always appreciated and it is what makes being an athlete at BU special! 


Our next action will be in Southern Ontario this week: 

Men's & Women's Exhibition Doubleheader @ U of Guelph
Thursday October 22nd   Women at 6PM, Men at 8PM   

Hawk Invitational @ Wilfred Laurier U.
Friday October 23rd      8PM       vs.  Wilfred Laurier U 
Saturday October 24th   2PM       vs.   Laurentian U.

Hope to see a few of our alumni at the games!
Rod

Gaiters Open CIS Play @ Nipissing U.

Friday @ Nipissing

BU   15   15   18   22   -   70
NU  17   23   28   15    -   83

The stat  sheet said we had 12 turnovers, but it also said we had 0 defensive rebounds! Neither one of those stats were even close to accurate. We shot ourselves in the foot for the first 2 1/2 games we played this weekend with turnovers. The reality is that 9 of our top 12 players are freshmen and it is early October. We are learning to play together and it is not going happen overnight.

This game, like the whole weekend was a learning experience. We had some good possessions and some bad possessions as we struggled with consistency. In this game when things went poorly we did not have the resolve to turn the tide and our young group quickly realized it was not going to be easy.  Definitely a bit of a wake up call and you can put up a tally mark on the board for a lesson learned by a young team.

3rd year transfer Pete Weston was a bright spot with 22 points in his 1st game as a Gaiter. Freshmen Abdul Kamane and Nick Harvey each chipped in with 12 points.

Saturday vs. Humber College

BU   10   8   15   15  -  48
HC    8   18  25   15  -  66

Humber is the defending Canadian College champions and are a mature group who play very much like a good CIS team.  So, this was going to be a tough game especially since Humber had got whacked by 50 the day before  vs. Western. You knew their pride had taken a hit and they were going to bounce back.

Despite that we hung very tough for the first 17 minutes before the stat of the game caught up with us...33 turnovers! We had a several turnovers in the first quarter, but many of those were of the deadball variety where we could set our defense. The 2nd quarter was not like that. Humber quickly capitalized on our turnovers & scored quickly.

The 2nd half was better than the first and this game was better than the day before. Yet I could not say we played much good basketball. Dave Belanger and Pete Weston led us in scoring with 14 & 13 points respectively.

Sunday vs. Western

BU       8   11   19   15   -   53
WU     19  26   11   17   -   73

Despite the score this was a great game for us. We played against a mature team where every guy plays hard on every possession. They execute well at both ends of the floor and it was exactly what our guys needed to see and play against.

Being down 26 at the half  was a product of our 18 first half turnovers and not our compete level. We had 7 turnovers in the 2nd half as shared & moved the ball better. Our guys started to buy into how valuable it is to pass the ball without dribbling it first. A simple thing, but so underrated and hard for young guys to understand! So, what could have turned into a terrible 50 point loss was a 20 point loss where we really got better in the 2nd half. We just have to make sure we build on that last 20 minutes of the weekend.

Abdul led us with 13 points and did a great job rebounding at both ends as small forward. Nick had 12 points and Jona Bermillo got back on track adding 11 points while doing a real nice job of running the point guard spot for us.

We have Thanksgiving Weekend off, but head to Carleton the following weekend to play in the House-Laughton Tournament:
Friday October 16th  v. Toronto @ 6 pm
Saturday October 17th v. Acadia @ 6 pm
Sunday October 18th v. Carleton @ 2 pm

We hope to see you there!
Rod

Labour Day Weekend NCAA Games

Saturday vs. Manhattanville College

BU      24    9    26    20   -   79
MC     17   25   19    20   -   81

Sunday vs. Kean University
BU      23   17   25   15   -   81
KU     14    9    26    24   -   72

After a very good training camp where we completed 10 practices and a lot  team building, the 2015-16 version of our team hosted NCAA D3 opponents Manhattanville College & Kean University.

We certainly had our share of freshman type moments...which is to be expected as 9 of the 11 guys we had dressed were true freshmen. Despite that, we definitely had some flashes of potential. Due to a few of injuries at the guard position we ended up playing big line-ups all weekend against much smaller teams. At no point during the weekend did we have less than 4 guys on the floor over 6'5. That had both it's positives and negatives! We did rebound the ball very well, but struggled guarding dribble penetration at times as both of our opponents regularly had 4 or 5 guard lineups.

4th year point guard Jona Bermillo & 3rd year forward David Belanger were solid in both games. Several of our freshmen had excellent moments during the games and showed they will be able to be very good players at the CIS level.

To check out complete stats for these games you can follow this link: http://gaiters.ca/schedule.aspx?path=mbball

We won't player our first CIS action until October 2nd at the Nipissing Tournament in North Bay, ON. I will keep you updated as we start to get into our non-conference schedule.
Rod

Busy Year End for Gaiter Hoops

A Celebration of 50 Years of Gaiter Basketball...the Smith & Pomykala Years

       This past Saturday we  had our inaugural Gaiter Basketball Alumni spring weekend. We wanted to start the tradition of a basketball themed weekend and felt the best way to kick this tradition off was by honouring the two coaches who built the program here at BU for 50 years...Garth Smith & Eddie Pomykala.  

Former Gaiters from the Class of '62 to '15!!

         It was a fantastic weekend that brought together different generations of former Gaiters and the concept was very well received by all. Saturday afternoon included a tour of the new facility followed by 3-3 basketball that included players from the class of ’67 to the class of 2015. It was good natured & semi-competitive fun. It was great to see such a variety of players on the floor together. The evening was a banquet at the Cleghorn Room highlighted by speeches about Garth & Eddie from Butch Staples and Warren Newberry respectively. This was also an opportunity for everyone in our Gaiter basketball family to recognize the accomplishments of this year’s team. 

Great fellowship  at the Cleghorn!

        Alumni stay tuned...we are planning to run our event on Saturday April 2nd of next year as that will coincide with NCAA Final 4, but will not  conflict with Easter!! I would like thank  everyone who made such a great effort to be here...we had alumni from as far away as Florida and Victoria, BC!!

















Supper at Principal Goldbloom's! 

After a busy and entertaining Saturday our team was invited by Michael Goldbloom and his wife Fiona over to their home for dinner on Sunday to celebrate our RSEQ Championship season. This does not happen at every school and the offer was very much appreciated...especially since there are few guys on our team who would ever turn down a free meal!! 

It was extremely nice gesture by Michael & Fiona and we had a great time! 










BU Athletic Awards Night Review


Sr Captain Kyle Desmarais took home the hardware this past Wednesday as he was named not only Team MVP,  but also the Bishop's University Athlete of the Year. A nice way to finish off his CIS career!


Sr Majid Naji took home the Michel Fontaine Memorial Award as the team's Most Improved Player. Majid really improved at the defensive end of the floor and became a consistent rebounder for us this year. 


Mathew van Doorn was named the Bradley Jones Award winner as our Rookie of the Year. Mathew was in a difficult position with so many veteran player ahead of him, but he managed to show well when he got the opportunity.


Sr Jamil Abiad was named the Garth Smith - Team Award winner. Jamil was a patient & persistent role player on our team who was always ready to contribute on the floor or support his teammates!

Stay tuned for recruiting updates in the coming weeks!
Rod
 

 

CIS Final 8 Wrap-up

This was an incredible week for our program, school and community. We received such great support from everyone on campus (admin & students), in our local area & from our alumni literally around the world. So, losing hurts that much more when you know it really means something to the people in your community. Most places don't have that, but we do at BU! Thursday night was an experience and I can only imagine what might have been on Saturday evening with the national press acknowledging that we have the best fans & alumni  in Canada!

I would like to first off thank the guys on our team who persevered through a challenging season to play their best basketball when it counted. I would like to also thank our coaches who showed the same fortitude as the players. And most importantly, I would like to thank my wife Jenn & our 4 terrific kids for supporting myself and our team through what is always a long season for them too!

On behalf of everyone  in our basketball program we would like to thank: the parents, fans & alumni who supported us all year, the alumni & students who made it to Toronto & showed the rest of the CIS what BU is all about, everyone in our Athletic Department & all BU administration who provided so much support in our final weeks and dealt with the challenges of our new construction all year.

Best Fans in the CIS! Photos courtesy of Blair Shier...Thx again Blair!

Thursday vs. Ottawa - Overtime

BU        11    24    16    25    9   -   85

OU        19    9     18    30   15  -   91

This was a heartbreaker...might be an understatement! After a nervous and difficult 1st quarter we went on a 22-1 run and turned a significant deficit into a 7 point half time lead. Once we settled in, we managed to get what we wanted on offense and our defense was excellent. Ottawa averages 97 ppg, thus holding them to 9 in a quarter and 28 in a half is special. 

The 3rd quarter got off to a shaky start as we made some unnecessary turnovers that Ottawa capitalized on quickly. They cut the lead to 1 and may have even taken a quick lead. We managed to regain our focus and finished the 3rd quarter up 5. 

We played some good basketball in the 4th, but Ottawa turned up the pressure and managed to trim our lead to 2 with 18 seconds to go...they forced some turnovers and we simply gave the ball away a couple of

Jona 23 pts, 7 assists, 6 rebounds

times. With 10 seconds to go they stole the ball and Kurt Caro drew what looked to me and a lot of other people like an obvious charge which instead turned into the tying points on a blocking call. It was then 76 all and we are headed to OT.

In overtime, Ottawa built an 8 point lead which we cut to 3 with 30 seconds to go, but we could not get any closer. 

We did turn the ball over too many times, some forced, but too many unforced and that ultimately led to our demise. Ottawa did shoot 40 free throws to our 13...that should have been a lot more even. Suffice to say, 2 of the 3 officials in our game were relegated to the consolation side of the draw for the rest of the tournament. That is usually pretty telling. Regardless of anything, our guys played their asses off and deserved better. Our defense was very good, we ran very good offense for the most part and we rebounded the crap out of the ball. We out-rebounded Ottawa by 19 rebounds and in our last 5 games have out-rebounded opponents by an average of about 16 per game.

Jona continued his outstanding play as he had 23 points, 7 assists & 6 rebounds. Big Mike had a career high 18 rebounds to go with 17 points and 4 blocked shots. Karim & Majid had 12 & 10 points respectively. Kyle and Kurt did a great job of making Ottawa's CIS Player of the Year work for every shot and held him to 4 pts below his average. Everyone who touched the floor helped us. 

It was an incredible experience playing in that venue with a LOUD sea of purple supporting us. The game was voted the most exciting of the tournament and the BU crowd had a big part in that. Apparently this game was the most watched single game of any sport on-line in CIS history.

Friday vs. Windsor

BU        18    21    20    21   -   80

UW       23    24    20    24   -   91

The hardest games to play in this tournament are the 2 consolation semi-finals. You had your heart ripped out the night before and your hopes of winning a National Championship are gone. Both teams hoped to be

Big Mike 29 pts in final game

playing on the other side of the draw and this game was very anti-climactic. Regardless, when the ball went up both teams played hard, but certainly not with the same emotion as the night before.

Not a whole lot  of defense in this one. Both teams went up and down the floor and pretty much got what they wanted offensively. Also, both teams played a lot of guys and we managed to get all 12 into the game. Windsor shot incredibly well making 13 of 27 3 point shots. 

Big Mike dominated inside with 29 points as his teammates did a great job of getting him the ball in positions where he could score easily. Jona chipped in with 12. Majid added 8 points & 9 rebounds while Dave had 8 pts and 5 rebounds.

That wraps up this season! We lose some great guys, but recruiting is going well and we are excited about working with a young group next season. 

For our Alumni & Friends of Gaiter Basketball, we hope to see you April 11 for our Celebration of 50 Years of Gaiter Basketball as we honour Garth Smith and Eddie Pomykala. 

All the best and thanks for sharing the success of this season with us!

Rod