RSEQ Week #7

Thursday at McGill

BU          19    26    19    16   -   80

MU         18    17    29    20   -   84

As we seem to do each week, we went from one extreme to another in a statistical category...last game we were 1-24 from the 3 pt line, this game we were 15-34. Along with shooting the ball well we were strong defensively in the first half. However, we continue to hurt ourselves with unforced turnovers and McGill did a good job of making us pay. The scored 21 points off our 16 turnovers that was the major difference in the game.

Midway through the 3rd Q we were up 15 points. McGill switched to a zone that took us out of our rhythm. McGill went on a run and made it a game heading into the 4th. The game remained tight throughout the 4th before we took a 6 point lead with less than 90 seconds to go. McGill came down and hit a tough 3 point shot to cut the lead to 3. They promptly pressed us full court which we attacked well. At the end of it we had our best finisher go to the rim for a layup before a McGill defender sprinted back and slid under him resulting in a game changing call. Obvious block on the video, but that was not the call on the floor. A quick technical was called on our player as he reacted to the missed call. McGill made the free throw and knocked down another contested 3 on the next possession to take the lead for good. We have let some games slip away over the last 3 weeks.

Nervens Demosthene led us in scoring with 17 points. Joany Castor Thadal scored 14 while Kevin Davis & Abdul Kamane added 13 & 12 respectively.

Saturday vs. McGill

     

BU          19      8    13    18   -   58

MU         15    14    12    25   -   66

We got off to a good start before McGill knocked down some 3 point shots to get back into the game. Overall defensively we were pretty good. We are at a point where we are starting to guard the ball much better as a team and definitely have significantly more excellent defensive possessions than poor ones. We led by as much as 6 in the first half, but missed opportunities to increase our lead. The 2^nd quarter was abysmal offensively as we were 2-17 from the floor which included going 0-9 in the paint. We did not rebound particularly well the first night vs. McGill, but were much better this game. Turnovers were again an issue even though they were even with McGill. They just managed to turn our miscues into 13 points in the first half.

In the 3rd Q McGill made a bit of a run to go up 7, but we managed to reel that back in by early in the 4th and had a small lead before we had a lapse of about 3 or 4 possessions defensively that allowed McGill to push their lead to 7 or 8 points. During that stretch we had some good looks that did not go down. We were 8-31 from the 3 pt line which included 8 misses that literally seemed half way down before they popped out. For some reason we have shot the ball better on the road than at home this year. That bodes well if we can manage to get ourselves into the playoffs as we won't be hosting any playoff games! 

Nervens had 13 pts to lead us. Yassin Naji had 10 & 7 rebounds. Yas has played very well in the last couple of weeks. Abdul also had 10 points.

We have a bye this week before we head into our final 4 games of the regular season. So far it is an understatement to say our record does not match our goals. Regardless, we are still not out of the playoff hunt and once you are in the playoffs anyone can win. This could not be truer in our league this year.

RSEQ Week #6

Thursday at UQAM

BU           18    24    27    17   -   86

UQAM    23    21    16    27   -   87

A most disappointing loss. We had a 6 point lead  with less than 2 minutes and to go, but could not put UQAM away. They scored an ‘and 1’ 3 point play to take the lead with 3.4 seconds to go. Questionable call on the foul, but it should have never gotten to that point anyhow...the call was not as bad as the missed pass interference call in the Saints-Rams game!!

Sr Guard Kevin Davis

After a very flat start to the game that had UQAM up 15 points in the first quarter we found our stride. We played well at both ends of the floor from that point on until the final 2 minutes of the game. When you shoot 63% from the floor and out rebound an opponent 38-21 you are not supposed to lose. However, we did commit 25 turnovers which led to 30 UQAM points and shot 3-12 from the foul line.

Kevin Davis led us with 22 points. Abdul Kamane had 17 points and 10 rebounds. Nervens Demosthene continued his solid play as of late with 15 points. Yassin Naji had his best game of the year with 8 points and 10 rebounds. Jordan Thornhill contributed 10 points in a balanced attack.

Saturday vs. UQAM

     

BU           16    10    19    24   -   69

UQAM      9    15    32    29   -   85

After a solid defensive 1^st half we struggled at that end in the 2^nd half. UQAM has some shot makers and they made some tough shots in the 2^nd half. Until I watched the video I did not realize how many contested shots they made…along with a couple of bank shots from the top of the key.  Conversely, we were 1-24 from the 3 pt line (Freshman Connor Kelly went 1-1 making our only 3pt shot)  that included some great open looks. We also missed a few key shots inside despite shooting a high percentage in the paint. We did shoot 16-20 from the foul line...could have used that the game before! 

Freshman Guard Connor Kelly

So, not our typical home performance and not how we wanted to end the weekend. On the bright side, despite losing a miserable 7 in a row we are 1 win out of 2^nd place. Concordia is 8-1 and very much in control of the league while the other 4 teams slugging it out behind them.

Abdul Kamane had 19 points and 5 assists. Nervens Demosthene continues his fine play with 18 points and 13 rebounds from the guard position.

Thursday we are on the road again at McGill. Game time is 8 pm. These will obviously be key games and we hope to have a few more guys back off the injury list this week. Fingers crossed!

RSEQ Week #5

Thursday at #9 Concordia

BU           19    18    16    15   -   68

CU           23    12    20    23   -   78

Both games were very tight for the most part of 85 minutes this weekend. In this game there was 17 lead changes and in the 2^nd game there was 16 lead changes and 20 ties. You cannot get much closer than that. Unfortunately we went cold in the final 4 minutes of this game. After leading by 1 with 4 minutes to go we only scored 1 more point for the rest of the game. We did have a few good looks that definitely could have impacted the outcome, but the shots did not fall.

Andrew Howarth

 Defensively we were decent, but offensively we struggled to get into any kind of rhythm. It was our first game since December 1^st and we just had no flow. We had what might be a season low 12 assists and did not move the ball well enough to get good shots on a regular basis. Our guys played hard though and that kept us in the game.

Abdul and Joany each had 13 points. Kevin chipped in 11. ConU did a good job of containing Nervens holding him to 9 points, but he did have 9 rebounds and 5 assists.

Saturday vs. #9 Concordia - OT

     

BU           25    15    27    22     5   -   94

CU           24    24    21    20    10  -   99

As previously mentioned this game was very tight with exception of a few brief moments, but neither team could stretch out their lead to take control of the game. It was a well played game by both teams and was entertaining to watch.

Offensively our guys shared the ball and executed very well. We had 24 assists compared to 15

Joany Castor Thadal

turnovers. Both teams made shots that kept things exciting. I thought the game was played at a high level, but felt the officiating was quite inconsistent. My voiced opinion of this ended up getting me being ejected with 8 minutes to go in the 4^th quarter. 

Without question, I should have held my tongue, but at that point I was not afraid of the consequences. I was hoping things would change & had confidence in our assistant coaches who made all the right calls down the stretch. Coincidentally, following my ejection we did not have a foul called against us until we started fouling intentionally in the last 23 seconds of the 4^th Q. Down 4 with 23.4 seconds to go we scored off an inbounds play to cut the lead to 2 pts. Having only 1 team foul against us, we fouled twice and still needed another foul to get ConU to the line, but our guys were opportunistic and stole the ball which led to the tying hoop with 1.2 seconds left. ConU missed their last attempt and we were off to OT.

In overtime things remained tight and we held the lead for the first 2:30 of OT. From there Concordia maintained a 1 to 3 pt lead until the final seconds. Having Kevin Davis foul in OT hurt us and we failed to score when we needed to.

Andrew had  career high 19 points to lead us in scoring. He has been diligent in his training and skill development in the 4 years he has been here. It is nice to see that rewarded. Nervens was outstanding with 18 pts, 13 assists & 7 rebounds to go along with only 1 turnover.  Joany had a strong weekend scoring 16 pts in this game. Kevin and Jordan each added 13 points. Jordan led us in rebounding with 11.

This week we head to UQAM on Thursday to play a talented and athletic team. We then host them on Saturday. Every game seems to be a dog fight and persistence will be the key to success this season.