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