Tour of New England

Thursday at Bentley U

Bishop’s        33       20   -   53

Bentley          50       48   -   98

Not a whole lot of positive highlights in this game. Bentley is a very good team, but we were not exactly sharp and should have given them a better game.

Joany with 14 points

Defensively we did not communicate and did not battle to the best of our ability every possession. Bentley plays 5 out positionless motion that requires each guy on your team to be locked in defensively and ready to guard both inside and at the 3 point line. Definitely a different style to what most teams we see play. Regardless, it was a great opportunity to get better and understand the importance of guarding  the entire floor and for the entire shot clock…30 seconds at the NCAA level.

Offensively we did not consistently move the ball and had a season high 22 turnovers. More travels than normal and several offensive fouls…the same for both games actually. Some great teachable moments on the video though!

Except for a few brief moments in the first half there we had few good runs. Joany led us with 14 points and Jordan had 10 points & 5 rebounds.

Friday at Saint Anselm College

BU       29       34   -   63

SAC     57       38   -   95

St. A’s is in the same conference as Bentley and along with being ranked #6 in the preseason NCAA D2 polls they are the favourite to win the NE-10. So, we knew what we were up against.

Our effort and execution was much better in this game with the exception of a slow start and a spurt in the 1^st half  where St. A’s talented back court really hurt us. We struggled with foul issues in the 1^st half…this game was called much more tightly than the night before. I would say that half of the fouls against us will not be fouls this week when we open up against UQAM. The NCAA rules take any physicality out of the game and touch fouls can really take the flow out of the game. Fouls were 16-5 in the first half…not in our favour, but were even in the 2^nd half. Happy we started to adapt!

Jordan Thornhill - 2nd Yr FWD

Nervens & Kevin led us in scoring with 14 & 12 respectively.

This Saturday  is a special day at BU as we honour Gaiter legend Garth Smith who passed away this summer. Garth was a pillar in our community as the local golf pro, BU golf coach and of  course of the Gaiter basketball coach for 25  years. Garth had such a positive impact on so many people and certainly left his mark on BU and Lennoxville.

Also on Saturday we will be inaugurating our new team room which was made possible by the generosity of Gaiter alum Blair Shier. It is a fantastic room and our guys are so fortunate to have this long awaited upgrade.

It’s no coincidence that this date was chosen for these 2 important alumni events. We open RSEQ league play  vs. UQAM Saturday evening. UQAM has had some signature wins already this season over top ten teams Ryerson and Ottawa. They have a talented & dangerous team. The game will be all the more challenging as we will not have the services of starting guard Nervens Demosthene. He has to sit out a 1 game suspension for receiving 2 unsportsmanlike fouls in our playoff game last February. They were two fouls on the ball that were neither malicious or dangerous…questionable judgement & application of a rule that has been changed for the coming season.  Regardless, I am confident our guys will be up to the task.