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