Season Comes to an End...

Wednesday vs. Concordia

Score by Periods      1  2  3  4   Total
Concordia........... 19 18 23 19  - 79
Bishop's............ 16 14 25 21  - 76

As has been the case for the past few weeks our guys really competed hard and played

to the final whistle. We were down a couple of more bodies as Owen got a concussion in theMcGill game last Saturday and Andrew Haworth, who had been starting in Dave Belanger's spot, blew out his ankle in practice last week. That left us with 8 healthy bodies and I'm 

pretty sure I have never coached a game at this level with just 8 guys. The warm up 

reminded me of a men's league game warm-up with just the 8 guys in the layup lines!

Despite being shorthanded our guys made it a game. Concordia had a brief run in the 3rd 

pushing the lead up to 9 which was quickly trimmed down and the score remained tight. 

With just under 15 seconds to go Concordia took a 6 point lead. We came down the floor 

and Duncan Lambert knocked down his 5th three point shot of the game to cut the lead to 3 

with 7.5 seconds to go. Concordia called timeout which automatically advances the ball to 

the sideline in the front court. We have a line-up in that is pretty good at creating turnovers 

in this situation. So we feel still have a chance. We nearly steal ConU's first inbound attempt, but we have a foot on the line as we recover the ball. We deflect the 2nd attempt back out of bounds and we steal the 3rd inbounding attempt where Joany ends up with a 3 pt attempt from 35 feet that narrowly misses. Tough loss, but proud of our effort!

Abdul led all scorers with 18 points. Jona, playing in his final game at BU, had 17 points & 8 assists (1 turnover! More on Jona later). 2nd year forward Duncan Lambert had a career high 15 points while freshman Alex Boisse added 13. 

Saturday at UQAM

Score by Periods      1  2  3  4   Total
Bishop's............ 19 14 21 15  - 69
UQAM................ 19 18 16 25  - 78

Much like the last few games (excluding McGill) this game was tight and decided in the final minute. It was a 2 point game with less than 2 minutes to go and we just ran out of gas.  Wednesday night took a lot of us and our guys were playing on fumes in the 2nd half. They did a great job hanging in, but UQAM was fresher and their size wore us down.

 Fab Freshmen wearing #15,  Onnex Blackwood & now Joany!

Abdul led us with 17 points, Jona had 13 and Joany completed an excellent freshman season with 11 points and 3 steals.


So, that completes a season with no shortage of struggles and was one of those where I could say if you coach long enough you will see everything.  We realistically were not looking to challenge Carleton for a CIS championship, but with a little luck from an injury perspective we definitely would have been a playoff team and had a better than .500 record in non-conference play. 

Definitely a 'what could of been' type of season, but injuries are part of the game as is attrition. Despite everything it was a season that will help our core move forward as all but 2 guys were 1st or 2nd year players. Lots of teachable moments and character building opportunities. As difficult as is to finish outside of the playoffs I felt very proud of how our guys played the last few weeks. They played hard every second, competed, played unselfishly and they learned to deal with adversity. I can say it was truly rewarding to coach the group of guys that finished the season together.  

CIS basketball is now a major 12 month a year commitment for athletes. Attrition is much higher than it was even 8 - 10 years ago and you have to love it if you are going to make that commitment. Due to education, technology and increased expectations, athletes are better trained, coaches are better prepared and the game may even be played at a higher level, but a lot of what made the experience of being a CIS student-athlete special has disappeared unfortunately... for better or for worse. 

Moving forward the only guy we lose from our core is Jona Bermillo. Jona has been a fantastic teammate and a great kid to coach. Certainly represents everything we want in a Gaiter and he will be a proud alum moving forward. He had an exceptional career at BU...RSEQ All-Rookie team, soon to be 3 time RSEQ Allstar, played in 3 RSEQ finals with 1 RSEQ championship and he hit several huge shots in his career. Not sure I have coached someone who has come up bigger than Jona when the game was on the line. This season Jona led the league in assists and steals while finishing 3rd in scoring...he will be missed!

These guys were a big part of our last turnaround season! 

Truly appreciate the support we receive from our alumni, family & friends of Gaiter Basketball. It has been nice to see our alumni in the crowd in Montreal recently despite that fact we were not in a championship run. There is always optimism for next season. With a little luck on the recruiting trail and from an injury perspective I feel sincerely that next season with be quite different from this one. Nothing to do, but get to work on making that happen! 
I will keep you posted. 
Rod
   

Saturday @ McGill

Saturday @ McGill

Score by Periods      1  2  3  4   Total
Bishop's............ 16 17 16 22  - 71
McGill.............. 27 24 23 15  - 89

McGill has been playing at a very high level the last few weeks. They defeated Concordia by 27 on Thursday and UQAM by 29 the weekend before. I am not really one for moral victories, but despite not having a chance to defeat McGill on Saturday I was proud of how hard our guys played until the final horn. This game could have easily been a 38 point loss instead of an 18 point loss. Especially when you consider that Laval beating UQAM Friday night eliminated us from the playoffs. 

On the positive side of this game, we have 5 players score in double figures. Freshman point guard Alex Boisse had 14, Abdul had 13 and 12 rebounds, Joany had 12, Yassin had 11 and Jona chipped in with 10. 

Jona Bermillo - 5th Year Captain

We finish up the season hosting Concordia on Wednesday night and traveling to UQAM on Saturday for a 7 pm game. Wednesday night will make Jona Bermillo's final game at the Mitchell Gym. He has had an excellent career as a Gaiter being named an RSEQ Allstar 3 times, playing in 3 conference finals and winning 1 of those championship games. More importantly, he is a fantastic person and has been a great teammate. He graduated with a degree in Economics and is hoping to play professionally somewhere in Asia next year. We are wishing him the very best and would love to see him go out with a couple of victories! 

I will keep you posted,

Rod

Falling Short vs. Laval

Saturday vs. Laval

Score by Periods      1  2  3  4   Total
Laval............... 16 16 19 19  - 70
Bishop's............ 12 26  8 22  - 68

My apologies for getting this out a day late. I try to get it out at the same time each week win or lose. This week I was away recruiting from Sunday morning through Tuesday with no access to my laptop. 

This loss puts us in a precarious situation. Any BU loss or Laval win now eliminates us from the playoffs. We played again with a bit of a depleted bench. Really missing Dave Belanger at times as he has been the only reliable inside scorer we have had since Big Jonah went out with his concussion in October. Regardless, I thought our guys played well, played hard and played together. 

After a good first half we just could not score in the 3rd quarter. We missed numerous layups and did not actually score until 7 minutes into the quarter. From that point on we played very well on both sides of the ball. We pretty much played 5 guards the entire 4th quarter. What we lost from a rebounding perspective we made up with ball control and defensive pressure. 

Rookie of the Year Candidate - Joany Thadal Castor

Laval did have their largest lead of 9 points in the 4th, but our small line-up did a good job of getting stops and converting in transition for easy scores to gain a 2 point lead with just over a minute to go. However, the small line-up that got us the lead got over powered on Laval's last score when they scored off their 2nd offensive rebound of the possession. With score tied and the ball at our finger tips, Laval managed to grab the ball and score the winning basket with 15 seconds to go. Definitely a disappointing loss, but I am very proud of how our guys competed and played for each other. This season has seemed to have it's challenges every week, but despite the results it has only pulled our team closer together. 

Jona led us with 16 points and 7 assists. Abdul & Joany added 14 and 12 respectively. Owen was solid off the bench and chipped in with 9 points. 

This Saturday afternoon we travel to McGill for a 'do or die' game at 3 pm. Hope to see a few friends, fans and alumni out at that game! 

I will keep you posted,

Rod

Tough Losses to McGill

Thursday at McGill      

                            1     2     3     4   Total

Bishop's............ 13   17   12   20  - 62
McGill.............. 23   12   27   17  - 79

Playing McGill is never easy as they are a seasoned team that is very physical, defends well and 

rebounds even better. They are in 1st place and nationally ranked for a reason. 

After a tough first quarter where we could have been blown out we showed some toughness


 and battled back to cut a 10 point lead to 5 at the half. During that time, we rebounded and guarded dribble penetration fairly well. That was not the case in the 3rd quarter and McGill pulled away. 

We made a run in the 4th cutting a 20 point lead

to 8 at one point. With 1:50 to go McGill was up 11, but scored the final 6 points putting the game out of reach. Abdul had 19 points, Jona had 15 & Joany had 10. The telling stat was McGill

doubling our rebound total. 

Saturday vs. McGill

                             1    2      3     4   Total
McGill..............  14   21   33   19  - 87
Bishop's............ 14    9    19   17  - 59


We battled in the 1st quarter, but really made some tough shots to just score 14 points. McGill was locked in defensively we truly struggled to score all night. Defensively we were not good, but McGill's offense was ignited by their defense. They were just better and we were not going to beat them this 
night. 


Freshman Alex Boisse
Not a lot to speak of with regards to this game 
unfortunately. One of the bright spots of the weekend was the play of freshman 6'9 centre Josh Daoust. 
With Dave Belanger still out with a concussion Josh has been inserted into the line-up. Josh had expected 
to redshirt this year, meaning he would only practice and never dress for games. However, with injuries 
and defections he has gotten the opportunity to play. He was 4-4 from the floor with 6 rebounds in 2 
games. He did score twice in the post over his big 
brother who is a starting post at McGill. 
In the Saturday game, our point guards led us in 
scoring as Jona and freshman Alex Boisse each had 
12. It was nice to have Alex back in the line-up after missing the last 2 weeks. 


The 2 losses leave us in 5th place 2 games behind 
Laval for the final playoff spot. A win against Laval 
on Saturday at BU makes things interesting. Laval is talented, but has struggled mightily since Christmas 
losing their last 8 RSEQ games. We host them at 6 pm on Saturday as the women play the 8 pm game on our Shoot for the Cure night. 


I will keep you posted. 
Rod