Playoffs Out of Reach for 15-16

Saturday @ McGill

BU          17      5     15     9    -   46
MU         15     20    22    19   -   76

This loss eliminated us from the playoff race. You are definitely playing with fire when you are depending on beating the best team in your conference in their gym to keep your playoff hopes alive.

In the first quarter, we played pretty well and played the way we wanted to play. Unfortunately, that changed in the 2nd quarter as we allowed McGill to force us to play the way they wanted us to play. They took us out of our rhythm offensively and we ended up either turning over the ball on forced plays or taking contested shots. Lots to learn from a game like this!

The game was decided in the 2nd quarter and the first 5 minutes of the 3rd quarter. We never could bounce back in that time and could not find an answer for McGill. A quick timeout in the 3rd quarter did not help and we found ourselves in a situation trying to shake things up with different line-ups. We ended subbing 5 guys at a time to essentially run time-outs on the bench as the game was being played before subbing the same 5 guys back into the game in the hopes that we could stay close enough to make a run at them in the 4th. We did get a 25 point deficit back to 15 at one point, but the success was brief. Bottom line is we lost to a better team. It is a process and not always an easy one.

Abdul & Duncan led us in scoring with 11 points apiece. Abdul had 7 rebounds while Big Jonah added 6. Not much else to speak of statistically as the score would suggest. We shot 20% for the game and McGill had a lot to do with that.

Thursday we finish our season at Laval. The game means nothing to either team with regards to playoff match-ups. Laval finishes 4th and we finish 5th. Laval will face McGill in the opening round of the playoff and might be McGill's toughest match up based on how their games have gone this season. Regardless, we will be playing for pride on Thursday!

I will keep you posted!
Rod

Still Hanging In!

Saturday vs. Concordia

BU          18    19    19    18   -   74
CU          33    11     8     14   -   66

Sr Captain - Jona Bermillo

Saturday was Senior Night with Jona Bermillo being the only graduating potential non-returner on our team. Jona has had a very successful 4 years here...played in 3 league finals, won the league title last year, has been a league allstar once already and will be again this year. Great person and key player on our team...really hoping he comes back for his 5th year even though he will be graduating in the Spring with a degree in Economics. I think there is a decent chance he will return...fingers are crossed!

With Saturday being our last home game, I wanted to thank our fans as they have supported this young squad through more losses than wins this year. The best has yet to come for this group and that is pretty evident to anyone who has seen us play. The atmosphere was fantastic Saturday, there was the usual & appreciated community support along with the students being very loud!

On to the game, we did not have the start we had planned! We felt if we were ready to defend we could hold ConU to a relatively low number offensively...33 in the 1st quarter was not the number we were looking for! We did not panic, cleaned some things up and held them to 33 for the next 3 quarters. Offensively we were pretty consistent as the line score would attest to.

Down 7 at the half, we came out strong in the 3rd quarter. We moved the ball and were sound defensively leading to 15 ConU 2nd half turnovers. We continued to play pretty well in the 4th quarter and took the lead for good with about 4 minutes to go.

Freshmen Forward, Duncan Lambert

We had 5 guys score in double figures which was a first for us this season. Jona had 14 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists & 3 steals with 1 turnover in a very senior like outing. Freshman Duncan Lambert was a spark off the bench with 13 points and some excellent defense. Pete & Abdul chipped in 12 a piece while Nick added 10 points & 8 rebounds. Big Jonah Fogg started in the place of injured captain Dave Belanger. Jonah had 8 points & 5 rebounds. He really has come along in the 2nd semester. Gaiter great, Rob Burns, has been putting some extra time in the gym with Jonah and it is certainly showing. Thanks Rob!

So, the win keeps us alive in the playoff race! Any BU loss or Laval win ends our playoff chances...that's been the case for 2 weeks now. McGill did us a huge favour by winning at Laval by 1 on Friday night. Laval was actually up 23 points with 3:30 to go in the 3rd quarter in that game! As I watched, I was sure our doom was imminent. However, I barely had time to go through the 7 stages of grieving before McGill went on a 19-2 run to make it a game again and go on to win!

Saturday we play at McGill at 4PM...Laval is at UQAM Saturday. We need to win and hope Laval loses to set up decisive final league game at Laval the following week. Still a very precarious situation, but much more viable than it was 2 weeks ago. We are hoping to get a little support on Saturday at McGill from our friends and alumni in Montreal as we play in this do or die game vs. the top team in our league!

I will keep you posted,
Rod

Still Alive

Friday vs. UQAM

BU            19    21    22    21  -  83
UQAM       8    22    20    25  -  75

Finally a home win in league play! We have been in position a few times to win a home league game this season, but have managed to find ways to allow teams the opportunity to come back on us or were just unfortunate with our opponents making some clutch shots at key moments. After building a 19 point 3rd quarter lead there was certainly a threat of our opponent overtaking us again.  We did not help ourselves missing some lay-ups which often provide the same result as a turnover...a quick counter attack by your opponent. UQAM took full advantage of that and erased a comfortable lead pretty quickly. We allowed UQAM to cut the lead to 4 points very briefly with about 7 minutes left. Fortunately, we quickly restored the lead to 7 and UQAM never got any closer than that.

 Pete Weston  24 pts vs. UQAM

We played hard, but it also helped that UQAM's best player was in foul trouble. Like most teams in our conference, if you take one of their top guys out of the line-up it can really impact the game! Speaking of which, Pete Weston who missed the month of January with a foot injury came back into form in this game scoring 24 points. Not having Pete had a significant effect on our team as we are just not quite good enough yet to absorb the loss of one of best players.

Jona & Abdul were solid as well, each scored 15 points. Jona had 4 assists & Abdul added 9

Freshmen Guard, Austin Macklem

rebounds. Freshmen Yassin Naji & Austin Macklem were key contributors. Yas had 7 points, 7 rebounds & 3 assists. He is a 6'8 kid who can play just about any position defensively & is pretty versatile offensively. He has a chance to be very good. Austin gave us a huge boost in the 2nd half knocking down three 3 point shots and scoring 11 points. We see flashes from him and hopefully this game was sign of things to come.

Once again we had a  very good home crowd. It was the Shoot for the Cure night in support of the fight against Breast Cancer. Thanks to everyone in our community who have done such a great job helping us support this cause over the years.

Freshmen Forward, Yassin Naji

We currently sit in 5th place and not in a playoff position. However, Laval did lose & we did win so we are still alive for another week. Friday Laval hosts McGill and Saturday we host ConU. We need to have Laval lose and our team beat Concordia to stay in playoff contention. Each week we can play meaningful games is a bonus for our team at this point!

Stay tuned!
Rod

No One Said It Would Be Easy!

Thursday at Concordia

BU         8    19    13   13   -   53
CU        12   24    20   16   -   72

Last week our opponent had many more shot attempts due to our turnovers & lack of offensive rebounding. This week was the opposite...we had 11 turnovers this game, the same number of free throws as Concordia & 9 more shot attempts. It should have provided better offensive numbers considering we were decently efficient last week. However, it did not work out that way. Part of it was our doing and you have to give ConU some credit.

Abdul Kamane, 13 points & 9 rebounds

We never did really build much momentum until the 3rd quarter, but that was squashed by ConU making 2 contested buzzer beater 3's at the end of the shot clock & quarter in the last minute of the 3rd Q that ended our run. We never recovered from that and never threatened them the rest of the way despite playing with great effort.

Abdul was our only double digit scorer with 13 points to go along with 9 rebounds. Pete Weston was back in the line-up, but he and Jona struggled all weekend. We are at a point where we need them to provide some scoring if we are going to win. The young guys just are not quite ready to pick up the slack for our top 2 scorers being shut down.


Saturday vs. Concordia

BU        15    12    16    18   -   61
CU        19    15    12    18   -   64

This was a better overall performance, but we had a couple of stretches that cost us dearly. Defensively we were not sharp to start the game and then in the final 4 minutes of the first half we allowed ConU to go on a bit of a run.

We continuously fought back, but they always seemed to have an answer. In this game ConU made three contested 3 pointers at the end of the shot clock and that certainly impacted the game. Sometimes you need a little luck going your way, but I feel in most cases you do create your own luck! Despite that, we did show toughness and never did let Concordia get away from us. We had a chance to tie up the game at 60 with 30 seconds to go, but went 1-2 from the foul line. Concordia closed out the game going 4-4 from the foul line and we went 2-4, but had to miss 2 free throws on purpose to  create an opportunity to erase a 3 point lead in the final 8 seconds. Nice effort and add it to our library of game experiences for this team.

Nick Harvey, 12 points & 10 rebounds

Nick had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Abdul chipped in 11 points and 5 rebounds. Jona had 11 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. All his points came in the 2nd half and he did not score in game Thursday. Not sure if I remember him going scoreless since his 1st year. Despite that he battled through the adversity and kept us close.


We now sit at 2-10 in league play. Our chances of making the playoffs sit somewhere between slim & none. We basically need to win our last 4 games and hope Laval loses all 4. I like our chances of winning all 4 better than Laval losing all 4 though. We host UQAM Friday night in our only game of the week. Our only focus is the next game and getting better each week.

Thanks to our alumni who were able to support us Thursday at Concordia. We always appreciate seeing some friendly faces wearing purple when we are on the road!
Rod

Improvement Not Translating to Wins Yet

Thursday @ McGill 

BU        18    13    15    20   -   66
MU       27    16    22    14   -   79

We knew this would be a tough game. McGill was coming off of a couple of weeks where they were not playing their best basketball. I was sure that was not going to last and they we would have to be up to the task. We knew we would have to weather the storm early and we did not do that as we got down 19-4 after about 6 minutes or so. However, we showed resilience and had cut the lead to 27-26 over the next 10 minutes. We have some stretches where we can play some very good basketball...just have to make those stretches last longer! Anyhow, we relented somewhat in the final few minutes of the 2nd quarter with some unforced turnovers and McGill capitalized building up a 12 point lead going into half time.

Rookie of the Yr Candidate Abdul Kamane

In the second half, we once again had some good moments, but never really did make a run at McGill with a threat to win. Too many turnovers and keeping them off our backboard was an issue all night. They are a premier offensive rebounding team and we struggled with the physicality of the game. In most games in our league the refs really let a lot go...not so much to our advantage just yet. Collectively, we are decently athletic and long, but most of guys could use another year or two in the weight room to compete physical in these types of games. Regardless, many positives and lots of teachable moments.

Abdul led us with 15 points & 5 rebounds. Nick had 12 points & 7 rebounds while Jona chipped in 8 points & 5 assists. Jona gets a lot of defensive attention these days without Pete Weston in the line-up. We hope to have Pete back in a couple of weeks which should help both Jona & our team. Big Jonah Fogg had some quality minutes off the bench with 6 points and 3 rebounds. He continues to get better each week.


Saturday vs. McGill 

BU        21     9    26     7   -   63
MU       18    14   22    22  -   76

Same point spread as Thursday, but a different game in that we were legitimately in a position where a win was possible later in the game. We still struggled with turnovers and rebounding, but were marginally better in those areas. However, they were still our undoing.

Freshmen wing, Owen Martel

After a decent first half, we had a strong 3rd quarter and executed very well on both ends of the court at times...especially offensively. We had built a 7 point lead, but McGill made some shots that would not allow us to extend that lead. We started the 4th with a 56-54 lead and it was a 1 point game with 4 minutes to go. However, throughout the 4th we missed some good looks on offence, but more importantly had 7 costly turnovers. McGill made the best of their chances in the final minutes and put the game away. Again, we played 35 minutes of pretty good basketball against a nationally ranked team, but we could not close them out for the win.

Abdul was strong once again scoring 15 points and grabbing 9 rebounds. He is 9th in scoring (13.3 ppg) in our league & second in rebounding (7.4 rpg). He is the front runner for Rookie of the Year in our conference and will receive some serious consideration for Rookie of the Year in the CIS.  Dave added 17 points and 6 rebounds while Jona chipped in with 12 points. Freshmen Owen Martel had some very good minutes off the bench again knocking down a couple of key 3 point shots in the 2nd half along with a highlight reel follow up dunk that was just after the whistle.

Next up is our final Home & Home of the season with Concordia. We are getting into some must win situations and we could really use your support this Thursday at Concordia. We will have an alumni reception before the game. See the details below...hope you can make it!
Rod

Gaiter Basketball Alumni Reception – BU vs. Concordia

Bishop’s Men’s Gaiters Basketball has enjoyed a special relationship with its alumni over the years. The support given to the program is unique. Home games are special. This semester, we are looking to take that spirit on the road.

On Thursday February 4, our Lennoxville alumni will be traveling with the team to Concordia. The group will meet at the Olde Orchard Pub (5563 Monkland, NDG, at 6:00 PM). 

From there we will make our way to support the Gaiters as they play the Stingers at 8:00 PM. Our Montreal and Ottawa alumni are invited to join us to renew old friendships.

For more information, please contact:

Keith Kobelt       kobelt@videotron.ca

Rod Gilpin            rgilpin@ubishops.ca

Rob Burns             rburns@ubishops.ca