RSEQ Week #4

Saturday vs. #6 McGill

BU          19    14    16    29   -   78
MU         24    26    30    20   -   100

We started off playing pretty well at both ends of the floor. The tide started to turn later in the 1st quarter after 3 consecutive turnovers. That ignited a McGill run that would last the next 20 minutes or so. McGill is very good defensively and their pressure just took us out of our rhythm. We allowed them to bully us & speed us up.  Their pressure & depth controlled the game. We will have to do a better job this week vs. Laval from that perspective as we will be facing much of the same thing this Friday.

Yassin - 17 pts vs. McGill

From a statistical perspective FG%, free throw attempts & rebounding were all equal. However, McGill had 25 more shot attempts than us because we turned the ball over 33 times to their 14. There is just no way to make up for that kind of discrepancy. Having said that, when we were not turning the ball over we did execute reasonably well at both ends. I liked the way we competed and we never did quit. There were  a few lapses and an experienced team like McGill is going to take advantage of that. That is why they are the top team in our league.

Abdul led us with 21 points. Joany had 15 points & 8 rebounds. However, I think the bright spot was Yassin Naji who had a career high 17 points along with 4 rebounds & 3 assists. Yassin is starting to find some consistency in his offensive game which complements his steady defense. That bodes well moving forward.

We finish the semester this Friday vs. Laval at home. We need a good week of practice as Laval is playing very well right now. They are talented, experienced and are the most athletic team in the league.

I will keep you posted.
Rod

Gaiters Topped at Laval

Friday @ Laval

BU          19    13    16    26   -   74
UL          18    20    27    24   -   89

Right now our margin of error is pretty slim if we are going to be successful. With injuries at key spots we have a number of guys playing out of position and that is posing some challenges.  Especially when it comes to our depth & taking care of the ball...we had 29 turnovers vs. Laval and that alone sunk us. Our guys are playing hard, but we seem to be in a constant state of flux with regards who is in the line up from day to day.

PG - Alex Boisse

Point guard Alex Boisse sprained his ankle Thursday in practice and played about 10 minutes in the 2nd half Friday in a much less ineffective manner than usual. That meant that Abdul had fill in and play most of the game at the point. Not exactly ideal for a our starting small forward, but he did a decent job. Abdul playing the point guard position is not what is ideal for us, but it is a great opportunity for his game to develop and that will eventually help our team. He had 26 points, 8 rebounds & 4 assists in the loss.

Dave has continued to play well as he is leading the RSEQ in rebounding. Dave had 11 points & 10 rebounds vs. Laval. Joany contributed 11 points and played some solid defense. Yassin Naji is also started to come into his own as he played some excellent defense while adding 8 points, 4 rebounds & 3 assists.

On Saturday we host nationally ranked McGill who is coming off an upset loss to Concordia at home this weekend. Tough challenge, but I am confident our guys will compete!
Rod

Gaiters Drop to 1-1

Thursday @ ConU

BU          17    16    21    17   -   71
CU          21    12    33    22   -   88

After a solid first half defensively we coughed up the ball at inopportune times in the 2nd half allowing ConU to cash in on some easy baskets. The most telling stat was Points off Turnovers...Concordia 22, BU 8. According to the stats we had a normally survivable 15 turnovers. However, they were mostly live ball turnovers that kill your defensive transition.

Abdul 22.5 ppg in RSEQ Play

Other than that, I think Concordia did a good job of defending us and we also did a good job of defending ourselves when they didn't! Shooting 5-14 from the foul line did not help our cause either.

Concordia was the better team on this night. However, there is an opportunity to learn a lot from this game. As they say, you usually learn more from a loss than a win. The bottom line is that despite failing in the 2nd half we handled the adversity better as a group than we had earlier in the season. There is a level of maturity now that was not even there just a few short weeks ago.   Our team chemistry is getting better each week and the buy in is there for this group. These guys have faced a lot of adversity from the 2nd half of last season through the earlier parts of this season, but they are pulling through it. We just need to weather the storm & hope we have a healthy roster by January.

We got very good production from the '5' position in this game. Dave had 15 points & 9 rebounds while Big Jonah added 8 points, 5 rebounds & a blocked shot. Abdul was solid again with 22 points. Yassin was very good off the bench with 8 points, 6 rebounds and some good defense.

On Friday we travel to Laval. They are an athletic and mature team. It will be a tough test on the road, but they have a great facility and it is a fun gym to play in.

I will keep you posted.
Rod

Gaiters Open League Play with a W

Saturday vs. UQAM

BU            24   21   19   19   -   83
UQAM     18   11    21   27   -  77

Suffice to say, it is just a relief to get a win! Would have been nice to get a few more in the pre-season, but this one actually counts. One step towards getting back to the playoffs. Our guys practiced very well the last couple of weeks. Even when we only had 7 or 8 healthy bodies in practice we were getting a fair amount accomplished. Sometimes intensity drops off when numbers are that low, but to our guys credit they did not allow that happen.

Dave Belanger 13 rebounds vs. UQAM

Defensively we have made a lot of progress and our guys did a very good job of playing hard, trusting each other & following the game plan. We did give up 77 points, but our sixteen 2nd half turnovers were costly as they were often converted into easy scores by UQAM. That is more on our offense than our defense.

We led start to finish and despite the spread being 6 pts at the end,  UQAM never really got close enough to seriously threaten. At one point in the 3rd quarter we were up 22 points, but UQAM never quit and we were a bit sloppy. I am sure the next time we face UQAM it will be a much different game as I feel that we did not see UQAM at their best.

Abdul led all scorers with 24 points. Joany had 22 points including going 4-8 from the 3 point line. Alex was solid at the point guard position scoring 19 points to go along with 4 rebounds and 4 assists.  Dave had another solid game scoring 9 points and grabbing 13 rebounds.

Next up is a quick turnaround as we face a talented and athletic Concordia team on Thursday at ConU. Game time is 8 pm. Hope to see you there.
Rod