Exhibition in QC City

Friday vs. Memorial @ Laval

BU       20       18       31       19   -   88

MUN   21       26       14       11   -   72

We were fortunate enough to pick up an exhibition game not too far from home as Memorial was in Quebec City playing Laval. Although I am not sure I felt exactly that fortunate in the first half of this game!

Nervens playing above the rim! 

Traveling is never an issue for us and we don’t allow it to be an issue, but we were flat after jumping out of our vans and onto the court.  In the first half we were slow defensively as we did not communicate or get into a stance off the ball. We were a step late on everything and Memorial made us pay. We have been more of a 2^nd half team this year which is not all bad, but we do have to tighten up some things earlier in the game as our league will be tighter than it has EVER been from top to bottom. A couple of bad starts could be the difference between hosting a playoff game or not making the playoffs at all…we really expect the RSEQ to be that tight this year.

Pushing the ball ahead on the break! 

Back to the game…defensively we were much more engaged in the 3^rd quarter which allowed us to counter attack and score quickly in transition. Abdul has struggled all pre-season after a tough summer of injuries. He had a stint with the Lebanese National Team in June/July, but seriously sprained his ankle a couple of weeks before heading to Lebanon. This was to his detriment as he played without being quite ready. It was not until this game where we saw flashes of his 2017-18 self. He was a factor defensively, played with great pace and scored at the rim in transition. He also passed the ball very well…a part of his game that is getting better and better.  All in all, Memorial had a hard time dealing with our team speed in the 2^nd half and we were able to wear them down to get the win.

Nervens had 19 to lead our scorers. Abdul had 18 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 0 turnovers. Joany shot the ball well scoring 15. Kevin chipped in 11 and grabbed a team high 9 rebounds…he is definitely one of the better rebounding guards in the country.

6’6 freshman forward Emile Babin is starting to impact our rotation after missing the first 6 weeks of

Freshman Emile Babin

the year with a stress fracture in his foot. He was 4-4 from the floor and brings a very athletic & physical presence to our front line. This fills a void as we have lost 7’0 Jonah Fogg. Jonah suffered another concussion in September and with his history of documented concussions he has to retire from competitive basketball. Jonah is a great person and we feel very badly that he has to stop playing. He will remain part of our program and has already begun coaching at the youth level.

This week we head into New England to play 2 legendary Northeast 10 NCAA D2 programs in Bentley & St. Anselm’s. Both are fantastically coached and are continually at the top of one of the best NCAA D2 leagues. St. A’s is pre-season #6 in the NCAA and Bentley will challenge them for a league title as usual. It will be great prep as we head into league play the following week.

Game times:

Thursday 7:30 PM @ Bentley U  (Waltham, Mass)

Friday 6:00 PM @ St. Anselm’s College (Manchester, NH)

Naismith Tourney Report

Naismith Tournament at U of Waterloo

Thursday vs. Ottawa

BU       25       21       10       21   -   77

UO       24       22       19       16   -   81

Ottawa, as usual, has another strong team. They proved that beating a very talented UBC team the day after our game. Regardless, we have had a number of exciting games vs. Ottawa over the years and this was no exception. Both teams have very good guard play and generally shoot the ball pretty well.

Sr Guard Kevin Davis

The game was tight throughout with very few big runs by either team. The exception was a 3 minute stint in the 3^rd Q where we got loose with the ball and made some turnovers that Ottawa quickly capitalized on. We managed to hang on though and regained our poise staying within striking distance.

In the 4^th we defended well which gave us a chance to get back into it. Despite Ottawa making a couple of tough 3 point shots at key times we did have the lead down to 4 with less than a minute to go and with us shooting 2 free throws. We unfortunately missed the free throws and from there we just could not get any closer.

Nervens led us with 17 points, 7 rebounds & 4 assists. Kevin continued his excellent play with 14 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists & 3 steals. Abdul who has been struggling with injuries showed flashes of his old self with 11 points & 10 rebounds while 4^th year forward Andrew Howarth had 10 points & 7 rebounds. Drew has been solid all season as his consistent play has really anchored our 5 spot.

Friday vs. Waterloo

BU       17       18       16       18       15(OT)   -   84

UW     26       8         19       16       10(OT)   -   79

As the score would suggest this was an exciting game. After a less than stellar  defensive 1^st quarter we locked in a bit and got back in control with an 18-2 run to start the 2^nd Q. Waterloo hung tough anytime it looked like we could put some distance between us and them. Any time we pushed they pushed back until the very last second of the 4^th Q and the end of OT.

Late in the 4^th we had 1 point lead. We got a defensive stop which we turned into a quick transition    layup at the buzzer to send it to OT. Tough last minute, would have been over if we made our free throws, but you have to give Waterloo credit for making plays when they had to.

Freshmen Zion Vervroegen

layup with 18 seconds to go. We ended going 1-2 from the line twice in the final 18 seconds and Waterloo found ways to stay in it as they made a

With Zion & Abdul fouled out we headed to OT with Waterloo carrying the momentum. Fortunately our guys did not hang their heads and we played  a very good 5 minutes to secure the win.

Joany had a good night after really struggling with his shot vs. Ottawa. He had 23 points & 7 rebounds. Nervens added 16, Abdul had 12 and Zion had 11. Kevin & DJ each had 8 rebounds from the guard spots. Kevin also scored 12 points.

Saturday vs. Laurier

BU       22       20       22       17   -   81

WLU   16       15       20       16   -   67

I was not sure what we had left after the OT game the night before. Fortunately our guys were tough and continued from right where they left off the night before with our defense leading the way.

2nd Yr Guard - Nervens Demosthene

Our guards did a nice job of forcing Laurier to run their offense further out than normal which took a bit of the rhythm out of their game. It was not perfect, but defensively we are getting better each game. Assistant coach Matt McLean has done an excellent job teaching our defense and preparing our guys for each opponent.

After leading by 11 at the half we came out and pushed the lead to 19 in the 3^rd. Laurier pushed back, but never got closer than 12 the rest of the game. Kevin led us with 20 points. Jordan, Zion & Nervens all had 12. Abdul had 9 with 14 rebounds.

All in all it was good weekend for us. We are seeing progress and have shown we can learn from previous games. We are finding some balance on offense and definitely building some confidence on defense. This team is fun to watch play and more importantly for me, fun to coach!

Photos courtesy of Gaiter Alum Blair Shier!

We have had some tough losses, but some good wins so far. Looking forward the next few weeks of practice in order to prep for our league schedule. We have a scrimmage Friday vs. Thetford, 1 exhibition game vs Memorial the following week before heading to New England to face a couple of NCAA D2 powerhouses before league play.

Stu Aberdeen Tournament Summary

Stu Aberdeen Tournament  @ Acadia

Friday vs. Acadia

BU       14       17       22       23   -   76

AU       15       10       23       24   -   72

Starting the season on the road vs. the home team in their opening tournament is always a challenge. That made it a little nicer to get this win.

The first quarter looked like a couple of teams playing their first game in September. Neither offense was sharp and generally speaking the defense at both ends is what impacted the score the most.

The second half was more fluid as both teams started to get more into an offensive flow.  Acadia closed the lead we had built up in first half a few minutes into the 4^th quarter. I do not believe they led by more than a point before we went on a run to push our lead to 11 points. Acadia pushed back in the final minutes and did close the gap to 3 points, but we held on and Acadia never did get a shot to tie the game.

Senior guard Kevin Davis led us with 22 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocked shots and 2 steals in an overall fantastic performance. He hit big shots down the stretch in the 4^th quarter and made some big plays on the defensive end. 3^rd year guard Joany Castor Thadal chipped in 16 points despite being saddled with foul trouble. 2^nd year guard DJ Ngom led us in assists with 7 while also grabbing 6 rebounds.

Saturday vs. Carleton

BU       7         20       23       16   -   66

CU       29       27       30       21   -   107

The score looks bad, but everything is relative. They beat X by 70 and Acadia by 61 this weekend too. We really struggled with the level of intensity in this game for about the first 7 and half minutes. Everything was a level faster & more physical than we were used as we found ourselves down 22-0.

From that point on there was a lot of positives to take from this game. I thought we competed hard and executed relatively well on both ends of the floor at times. Carleton is just REALLY good and if you breakdown at all they make you pay…usually it costs you 3 points! They are the best team I have coached against in my career with the possible exception of Syracuse who had several NBA guys on it…but I am still not sure they are not a better team than Syracuse was.

Freshman guard Zion Vervroegen led us in scoring with 12 points. Z is a bit of the under the radar recruit who really has practiced well since the beginning and had a very nice 1^st weekend. 2^nd year guard Nervens Demosthene played his best game of the weekend vs. Carleton scoring 11 points and adding 3 assists.

Sunday vs. St. Francis Xavier

BU       20       22       22       12   -   76

 X         22       22       23       20   -   87

This was an uptempo game from the start with a lot of guards who can shoot the ball. X just made more shots than us.   We rebounded ball pretty well as both 4^th year forward Andrew Howarth and 2^nd year forward Jordan Thornhill did a good job rebounding and defending X’s bigs.

For the better part of the first 35 minutes both teams were just trading hoops before we went cold in the final 5 minutes of the game. X stepped up and made some big shots to put the game away.  It was a disappointing end to the weekend, but X definitely earned and deserved the win.

Joany had a nice game scoring 26 points. He knocked down 7 three point shots in this game and most from very deep range. Nobody works harder on their game than Joany and going 14-28 from the 3 point line while being closely guarded was no fluke.

Kevin was exceptional again scoring 20 points, grabbing 7 rebounds, dishing out 5 assists to go along with 3 steals.

Next action for us in at the Naismith Tournament October 11, 12 & 13 at the U of Waterloo.