Jack Donahue Tourney Results

Jack Donahue Tournament @ U of Ottawa

Friday @ Ottawa

BU        10       8      23      15    -    56

UO        27      14    24      24    -    89

This was a tough one from the start. We lost Abdul for the weekend a couple of minutes into the game with a sprained ankle. That did not help, but it was not going to make a difference in this game.   Ottawa is an experienced and well coached team that played well all weekend. We did a poor job of defending dribble penetration which gave a very good shooting team way too many open looks from the 3 point line. That is something we are working to get better at.

Freshman Guard - Joany Thadal Castor

Not a lot of positives in this game to report on. Freshman Joany Thadal Castor led us with 11 points and he played very well all weekend. Joany would be referred to as a ‘3 and D’ kind of player...(I will give you the credit on that one Bones!!)  A good 3 point shooter who is also a defensive specialist. He did a nice job on both of those aspects of the game this weekend. Jona added 10 points as our only other double digit scorer.

Saturday vs. Waterloo - Overtime

BU          26      15      24      14      13   -   92

UW         10      25      23      21      17   -   96

After getting kicked the night before our guys came out very focused and did a great job of following the game plan in the first quarter and early in the 2^nd quarter. We played well enough to build a 20 point lead before we stopped doing the things that got us the lead. Waterloo to their credit hung tough and did a good job of being opportunistic throughout the game.

The story of the game was at the foul line where Waterloo shot 43 free throws to our 24. I may not have agreed with some of the officiating, but we were simply undisciplined with some of our fouls and did not adjust to how the game was being officiated. If we had looked after that we don’t go to overtime and we do not lose this game.

Freshman Point Guard - Alex Boisse

Late in regulation Waterloo took a 1 point lead with 3.6 seconds to go. Out of the timeout our guys executed well and found Jona who drew a 2 shot foul with 1.5 seconds left to go. So, Jona was heading to the line with a chance to win the game and there is no one I would rather have at the line other than him. Unfortunately, he missed the first, but made the 2^nd to send it to overtime.

In the later part of the game we lost Joany & Nick as they both fouled out. Without them we just did not have enough to hold off Waterloo in overtime as we suffered another close loss. Dave & Jona had 24 & 23 points respectively while Joany added another 14. Owen had 10 points & 6 rebounds in the losing cause.

Sunday vs. Toronto

BU               14      23      22      19   -   78

UofT            15      15      33      13   -   76

I thought we expended a lot of energy in the overtime game the day before and a couple of the guys playing were a little more nicked up. A Noon time start made it a short turnaround between games and with a thin line-up my main concern was to get out of the weekend with no more injuries as league play is fast approaching.

To our guy’s credit, they did not enter the game with any excuses in hand. After a slow start offensively we started to find our flow and built a 7 point half time lead. The 3^rd quarter was a combination of us turning the ball over and Toronto making some adjustments at half time that helped them put 33 points up in just 10 minutes.

2nd Year Forward - Nick Harvey

Throughout the 4^th quarter it was close, but they had built up a 5 point lead with about a minute to go. Freshman point guard Alex Boisse, who was a spark in the 2^nd half,  found his fellow Freshman Joany in the corner for his 5^th 3 point hoop of the game to cut the lead to 2. We managed to hold defensively and got the ball back with 24 seconds left. We did get a decent look initially to tie, but missed. Fortunately Nick grabbed his 18^th rebound of the game and kicked out the offensive rebound to Jona who knocked down the winning shot with 8 seconds to go. Great to get the win, but very happy to see Jona cash in on an opportunity to redeem himself in a late game situation after missing a chance to ice the game the day before. Toronto had one last shot and Nick rebounded the miss to finish the game with his 19^th rebound.

Dave led us in scoring with 20 points while grabbing 8 rebounds. Jona had 18 points and 5 assists. Nick added 17 points and an impressive 19 rebounds. When he is locked in he is very difficult to contain on the glass. He has a great combination of speed, quickness & strength for a kid who is 6’6 and 230 pounds! Joany completed his best weekend as a Gaiter with 15 points and some excellent defense.

Thanks to the BU alumni who came out to support us. It was nice to see Tommy Van Alstine, Grafton Timothy, Jeremy Leonard-Smith, Tim Hunter and Blair Shier out at the games. A special thank you again to Blair who provided the pics in this post along with more that will follow throughout the year. Blair finds the time each year to get to one of pre-season tournaments where he treats our guys to a meal and takes literally hundreds of game action shots of our team. So very much appreciated! Especially since we are not often in BC where he resides. 

That completes our CIS non-conference/exhibition play for the year. We finish that portion with a record of 3-5 vs. CIS opponents. Easily a couple of bounces and calls away from being 5-3 or better, but we are not the only team who could be saying that!

This week we head to the US to face a perennial championship level NCAA D2 team in Southern New Hampshire U at 6 pm on Friday. On the way back home through Vermont on Saturday we catch Lyndon State at 4 pm. SNHU should be on par with the likes of Ottawa and we will definitely have our hands full. I do not know too much about Lyndon, but both games will help us prepare for RSEQ play which opens the following week.

I will keep you posted,

Rod

Gaiters Tour of Alberta

Thursday vs. Mount Royal U

BU          18    23    30    18     -     89

MRU      12    17    19     21     -    69

As I watched our guys warm-up in pre-game I lamented the fact that I had tried to make this trip more budget friendly by traveling on the same day we played. We had a direct flight and we are used to traveling on days we play.  I figured we would be fine. However, I was seeing a sluggish team that did not have the usual hop in their step.

My worries were quelled fairly quickly. We competed from the start, but were a bit sloppy defensively. We did clean things up and dominated the glass. We have not received stats yet, but I would guess we had to be +10 in the rebounding department for the game. 

We pushed the lead up to about 30 points with around 4 minutes left in the game, but gave some of that back to finish the game with a 20 point win. I would estimate that we had at least 4 guys in double figures with Jona, Nick, Abdul & Dave leading the way. Freshmen point guard Alex Boisse was very good in this game as well and may have reached double digits.

Friday @ Lethbridge - Game 1

BU          20     9     18    22   -   69

UL          15    20    21    15   -   71

Lethbridge is a notoriously difficult place to win and we did experience this first hand!  After a good first 8 minutes or so we got into a bit of a funk which lasted through the 2^nd quarter. We struggled with some foul trouble and did not do a great job adjusting to how the game was being officiated. It was much less physical than what we are used to in our league. Frustrating at the time, but it allowed for teachable moments.

Despite not playing our best basketball we managed to hang  around and stay within striking distance. That would not have happened last year, but this team is light years ahead of where were last year at this time. Same guys…but, as the they say, the best thing about Freshmen is they turn into Sophomores! 

Lethbridge opened up an 11 point lead in the 3^rd quarter and led by as much as 7 with about 3 or 4 minutes to go. We managed to put together a bunch of good possessions on both sides of the ball in the final minutes and tied the game up at 69 with under a minute  to go on a 3 by 2^nd year wing Owen Martel. We got a defensive stop the next possession and followed that with an offensive possession where we had a decent look that did not hit it’s mark. That left Lethbridge with the last possession with 16 seconds to go. Our guys defended flawlessly, but unfortunately for us the Basketball Gods were shining on Lethbridge as they hit a tough contested off balance shot from the top of the key as the buzzer sounded! I am not sure we deserved to win this game as we did struggle through a long stretch in the middle. Regardless, I was pleased with the poise we played with down the stretch.

If Dave Belanger has not been our best player this year, he certainly has been our most consistent. Dave spearheaded our 2^nd half comeback and anchored our defense grabbing 14 rebounds while scoring a hard earned 18 points in the paint. He did hurt his knee late in the game and was not able to play Saturday and is doubtful for next week at Ottawa U. Owen and Abdul added 12 & 11 respectively while Jona had 9 points & 7 assists.

Saturday @ Lethbridge - Game 2

BU          17     25     12     17   -   71

UL           6      18     27     26   -   77

The loss from the night before did not sit well with our guys and they showed up focused on both ends of the court in the first half. We communicated very well on defense and everybody did their jobs. Offensively we moved the ball and  we had some great looks. We were up 18 at the break despite shooting the ball poorly. Had we knocked down some shots I feel we would have put the game out of reach by half time.

However, we did not make those shots and the game is 40 minutes long! Lethbridge came out aggressively in the 2^nd half and quickly narrowed the gap  cutting the lead to 3 at the end of the 3^rd quarter. We managed to hang tough in the 4^th and pushed our lead back up to 11 with just under 5 minutes  to go before the wheels just fell off. We stopped talking defensively, missed assignments in transition and could not score at the other end. That is where we really missed not having Dave or Big Jonah in the line-up. Having a big you can go to for a paint score is not only a luxury, but a necessity when you are playing on tired legs. 

We simply ran out of gas in the 2^nd half of this game. Our greatest asset is our depth and we just did not have that due to injuries. Regardless, it was great experience to face the adversity of a short bench, travel and playing on the road in a gym where it is tough to get a win. It does not take the sting out of losing, but I feel pretty confident that this group will be a tough out as the season progresses.

Jona led us with 18 points despite struggling from the 3 point line. Abdul had a quiet 12 points while Owen continues his positive ascent scoring 10. Nick & Duncan Lambert eached grabbed 9 rebounds.

Special thanks to Lethbridge’s native son, Dave Wells, or Wellsie as he is affectionately known nation wide in the basketball community for taking the time to show me around Lethbridge Saturday afternoon.

Next up for us is the U of Ottawa – Jack Donahue Tournament which starts Friday. We open up against the host Gee Gees Friday night at 8 pm. It is our first meeting since facing them in that heartbreaking overtime loss at the CIS Final 8 two years ago. We are both very different teams now and this will be a very tough game for us. Aside from Carleton, Ottawa has been the top program in the CIS over the past 5 years. Saturday @ 6pm we face and young, but talented Waterloo team and finish Sunday @ Noon vs. a very good U of Toronto team that already has some quality wins including a marquee win vs. UNLV in the Bahamas in August.

For our BU Alumni and Friends of Gaiter Basketball, there will be reception at the Royal Oak Pub next to the U of Ottawa on Friday evening before our 8 pm game. Hopefully a few of you can make it out! 

I will keep you posted,

Rod

Results from UNB's Eric Garland Tourney

Friday vs. UMaine-Fort Kent

BU          19       8      13      27   -   67
UMFK    16      16     24      18   -   74


After a good 1st quarter where we executed on both ends of the floor we struggled through much of the rest of the game. We did not capitalize on our opportunities and could not make open jump shots or layups while UMFK showed the ability to make some tough shots. They had a mature and talented core who was very opportunistic. They deserved the win and despite not playing our best we did learn a lot from it.

We managed to play 11 guys almost 10 minutes each. We have some depth and are trying to figure out what line-ups work best at this point in the season. We did have 4 guys score in double figures with Dave Belanger leading with 15 points. He also added 7 rebounds. Dave was our best player this weekend and was selected to the tournament allstar team. Abdul Kamane, freshman Joany Thadal Castor and Jona Bermillo scored 13,12 & 11 respectively.


Saturday vs. UNB

BU        14      26      14      15   -   69
UNB     14      14      21      11   -   60

Playing the host on their Homecoming weekend is always a fun challenge. There was a pretty decent crowd and UNB is very athletic. We were much improved over the day before and our guys played very hard on the defensive end. It felt good to see the guys bounce back with a better effort even if we were still unsure of ourselves.

We managed to build a 13 point lead in the 3rd quarter before UNB came back to tie the game at 54-54 with about 6 minutes to go in the game. From there our guys were solid at both ends of the court as we finished the game on a 13-2 run to get the victory.

We did a good job getting to the foul line as we shot 38 free throws...22 by Abdul who converted on 16 of those. We still did not shoot the ball well from the field, but defended, rebounded and converted enough free throws to get the win. Abdul ended up with 22 points and 9 rebounds. Yassin Naji had a nice game off the bench with some excellent defense to go along with 14 points and 7 rebounds. Dave was solid again with 10 points and 7 rebounds.


Sunday vs. Saint Mary's

BU      12      16      18      20   -   66
SMU   28      13      28      13   -   82

Saint Mary's was not going to be beat this weekend. They did not struggle too much vs. any of the other 3 teams. They are one of the better teams in the CIS in my estimation. We are just not ready to beat a team like that right now, but could definitely give them a game later in the year. They came out focused and competed harder than us right from the start. They set the tone early and before we were ready to play we were down 16. We had some good moments after that, but never threatened them.

Dave and Nick Harvey were are only double digit scorers. Big Jonah Fogg started to come on this weekend. Played well against UNB and was better vs. SMU scoring 8 points. Jona Bermillo led us in assists with 9 vs. SMU.

All in all we got a lot out of the tournament. We would have liked another win or 2. However, we are still young enough that we are lacking in some key areas. Those areas can be addressed in the coming weeks and we expect to be more than competitive. Our lack of experience won't be an excuse moving forward.

Next up, we play NCAA D3 Maine Maritime Academy at La Ruche Secondary School in Magog on Thanksgiving Monday at 4 pm. 

Have a great week and nice Thanksgiving holiday!
Rod