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

Home & Home with Concordia

Thursday at Concordia

Bishop's............ 17 14 12 12  - 55
Concordia........... 26 18 13 19  - 76

As most people know Concordia does not have one of the premier facilities (yes, that is being generous)  in the CIS, but we have been pretty comfortable playing there the past few years and usually come out of the season series with a split there. Unfortunately, that was not the case this season as we dropped both games at ConU. After a decent start we came undone and gave up a significant amount of points off turnovers. As a result, a close game was quickly a double 

digit spread in Concordia's favour. 

The way things were going we really could have been down 20 plus at the half, but we managed to keep it to 12 points. However, it seemed worse and we really never could make a run in the second half. It did not help that we lost Dave Belanger early in the 2nd quarter when he was taking a charge on the baseline (actually it was a no call should have been a charge). Dave ended up with 5 stitches to his chin and a mild concussion. In his limited minutes, Dave did make 5 of 6 shots. The only other bright spot was Jona who had 15 points & 6 assists. 




Saturday vs. Concordia

Concordia........... 15 17 26 17  - 75
Bishop's............ 17 15 15 22  - 69

A minute into the game and we were down 8-0. After a quick timeout we were back on track scoring the next 9 points and holding Concordia to 8 points over the next 12 minutes. In that time we started to play the best basketball we have played in a couple of weeks on both ends of the floor despite not having some key guys in the line-up. We did manage to build an 8 point lead in the 2nd quarter, but had a couple of lapses defensively and the half ended in a tie at 32. 

We struggled in the 3rd quarter, but had a strong 4th quarter. We were able to cut an 11 point Concordia lead to 3 a bunch of times, but could not make shots when we had a chance to close the gap. Regardless, I thought our guys played hard and played together for 40 minutes. We did not have the depth we would normally have, but still gave ourselves a chance and may have been a little unlucky at times. Abdul played his best game of the year with 19 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists. Jona had 14 points, 4 assists and 4 steals. Freshman guard Joany Thadal Castor continued his strong play 16 points and some solid defense. 

Next up we are at McGill this Thursday evening and then host McGill on Saturday. At 2-8, we sit 2 games behind Laval for the last playoff spot. Not exactly in prime playoff position. Hopefully we can get back on track a bit this week. 

I will keep you posted.
Rod

What a Difference a Week Makes...

Friday vs. UQAM

BU            15   11   12   24   -   61
UQAM     24   10   17   18   -   70

After a good first 5 minutes UQAM dominated the next 25 minutes. Having things go our way early in the game only gave our guys a false sense of confidence. We were feeling too good about how we played last weekend and UQAM was coming with with something to prove after getting blown out twice by McGill. UQAM is more talented than people give them credit for, but more importantly they play hard and together. That was pretty much the whole weekend in a nutshell. They just played harder and were more cohesive. Full marks to them.

In the 4th quarter of this game we did reduce a 20 point deficit to 5 between the 7 minute mark and the 1 minute mark. However, the we paid a price the next night for having put forth such a sustained extreme effort with a short bench right now.

Saturday at UQAM

BU            11   20   20   28   -   79
UQAM     18   24   29   27   -   98

This is about double the number of points that is usually scored in a game in our league...only slightly exaggerated! We got smacked on the glass almost 2 to 1 and got outcompeted like had not happened in any game this year. There is simply not that much to report on this game. We missed some good shots early and could not find a rhythm. There were opportunities to make a run in the 2nd quarter, but could capitalize offensively. Then in the 2nd half when we were scoring we could not get a stop when we needed it.

All in all, a disappointing weekend and we did not do ourselves any favours with regards to a playoff position. However, strange things have been happening in our league all year. You just never know what is going to happen from one week to the next.

This Thursday we play at Concordia. We host them on Saturday and we definitely will have to get things together this week if we are going to have any success against them.

I will keep you posted.
Rod

In the Win Column...Finally!

Friday @ Laval

BU           8     17     22     17   -   64
UL          16    14     15     13   -   58

It was definitely nice to get into the win column in league play. We were not in a must win situation, but it was getting close to that. Regardless, we felt prepared heading into the game. We had practiced well in December and January, but were certainly not game sharp after a 7 week break from our last CIS game. That showed in the first quarter as we had 10 turnovers. We figured things out and had 8 the rest of  the game.

BU Athlete of the Week - Big Dave

We have been putting a lot of time into becoming better from a defensive and rebounding perspective. That showed this weekend as we were at a level higher than we had been in the first semester.  That allowed us to stay in this game during a wretched offensive first quarter and during the 3rd quarter where we were down by as much as 11. It is never easy winning on the road, but if you defend & rebound you give yourself a chance.

Dave was just really solid all weekend and was especially good this game. He had 19 points & 8 rebounds while anchoring our defense. Jona did not shoot the ball well, but handled Laval's pressure well and provided stability. As our lone seniors, both these guys did a nice job leading this weekend.
Abdul struggled shooting the ball, but made a big 3 point shot that gave us a cushion in the final 3 minutes. He also had 13 rebounds and 5 assists.




Saturday vs. Laval

BU          23     25     17     19   -   84
UL           9      19     15     26   -   69

We are in the part of our schedule where we play teams in a back to back, home & home series. Winning 2 in a row is rare unless you are just that much better than your opponent. We are not that much better than any team in our conference and Laval is very formidable. Fortunately, we showed no  complacency and came ready to compete Saturday night.

Sr Leader - Jona Bermillo

The first quarter might have been our best quarter of the year. We were very good in every aspect of the game, but we did not let up. We pushed our lead to 25 early in the 3rd quarter, but Laval made a run to get it back to 14. We held at that point got the lead back to a safer margin. We had the lead to 26 with 6 minutes go, but Laval made a final push to narrow the point spread.

We had great balance on offense with almost 7 guys in double figures...Dave 15 points, Nick 14 points, Joany & Owen with 12 points, Abdul 10 points, Jona 9 points, Yassin 8 points. We moved the ball well and handled Laval's 40 minutes pressure defense pretty well.

The 2 wins puts in a position where we are 1 win behind UQAM & Concordia for the final playoff spot and 2 wins out of 2nd place where Laval sits. We host UQAM Friday and travel there Saturday to play a 7 pm game. Hope to see a few our fans and alumni at both games!

I will keep you posted!
Rod

RSEQ Week #3

Saturday vs. McGill

BU          26      17      19      11   -   73
MU         15      26      20      20   -   81


It was an exciting day on campus. We were inducting former BU basketball stars Trevor Bennett & Cynthia Johnston, along with all time great athletic therapist, Steve King, into the BU-RBC Wall of Distinction. It was great to see so many alumni and friends of Gaiter basketball back to honour these 3 exceptional people. Along with that our women's team broke a multi year RSEQ game losing streak beating a very good McGill team by 22. I am very happy for the coaches & players, they deserved wins earlier in league, but had suffered the same fate as us.

Dave Belanger

Having very similar results as the women's team with some very close losses I was hopeful we would continue to follow the same path as them for at least one more day! McGill had their full complement of players this week and spanked Concordia by 40 on Thursday night. So, we knew this would be a tough game. It looked good early as we started well and played pretty good basketball for the better part of the game. It would have been an entertaining game to watch from the stands and both teams were playing at a  high level.

We managed to hold onto a 2 point half time lead after a shaky 2nd quarter which included missing an open layup at point blank range with 5 seconds to go that McGill rebounded and turned into a running 1 footed take off 3 point hoop from 30 feet out at the buzzer. One play never decides a game, but that was key and one of a handful of possessions that hurt us. Despite that I thought we executed well, played hard and competed every possession.

The game had 14 lead changes and after half time no one really had more than a 4 point lead until the

last 90 seconds of the game. With about 5 minutes to go it looked like McGill had a chance to put us away then, but we put together a couple of defensive stops and scored 5 straight points to take a one point lead. Unfortunately we struggled to score in the final 3 minutes...part of it was McGill's defense and part of it was us just missing good shots.  A couple of empty offensive possessions and a couple of possessions where McGill made big shots decided what was a closely played game. We have talked a lot about the importance of one possession with our guys. It is likely our season is not decided by a game, but by a possession. Top to bottom there is no league as competitive as ours.

So, that leaves us with a league record of 0-4 where we have lost 4 games in the final minutes or seconds. Getting that first victory will do a lot and when that happens we will be difficult to deal with. Dave led us in scoring with 16 points. Jona had 13 points and 5 assists while Nick chipped in 11 points. Abdul had a season high 5 assists.

We do not have a Christmas tournament again this year and will resume league play in January. Until then, I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season!
Rod

RSEQ Week #2

Friday @ Laval

BU      17      17       7      23   -   64
UL      20      14      20     20   -   74

Alex Boisse

It is pretty evident looking at the line score where our problem occurred! We were not exactly stellar in the 1st, 2nd or 4th quarters, but we struggled in the 3rd quarter. It seemed terrible when it was happening...and it was! However, it really was a matter of us missing some good shoots. We had good scoring opportunities on about 11 or 12 of our 18 offensive possessions in the 3rd quarter with 3 turnovers and 3 poor shot selections. We missed our last 10 shots of the quarter and at least 8 of them were decent quality looks.

We did manage to mount a comeback with about 7 or 8 minutes to go. We made some of the shots we missed in the previous quarter and narrowed the lead to 5 a few times. As a matter of fact it was a 5 point game with 1:45 left to go. Laval closed out the game well and they deserved the victory. We gave up 30 points off of turnovers and we did not rebound the ball well at all. Those were easily the

Owen Martel

key factors in our loss. Hoping to cut our turnovers down this week and expect to be doing a lot more substituting if we don't!

There is not much to report on with regards to fine individual performances. Dave was solid with 12 points and 8 rebounds. Freshman guard Alex Boisse is continually improving and sophomore forwards Owen Martel & Yassin Naji are coming along nicely.

This Saturday we host McGill to close out the 1st Semester. McGill is ranked #8 in the country and is the team to beat in our league as the defending champs.

The games on Saturday will be played at 2 & 4. It is a special day at BU as former BU star basketball players Cynthia Johnston & Trevor Bennett along with legendary BU Athletic Therapist Steve King all get inducted into the BU Royal Bank Wall of Distinction. There will be a reception following the game in the Sports Centre. There are still a few places left for friends/alumni of BU basketball who are interested in attending. Please contact me if would like to reserve a spot.

I will keep you posted,
Rod

Week #1 RSEQ

Thursday @ Concordia

BU        13      23      22       9   -   67
CU        15      17      25      13  -   70

After the first week of RSEQ play there have been 4 games played and those games have been decided by a total of 9 points. Suffice to say, our league is very tight and every  game is going to be a dogfight.

This game was no different. We did go up by about as much as 9 in the 2nd quarter, but ended up leading by 4 at the half. In the first half we did a good job of not fouling (much easier to do in our league...'they let you play' as they say in the RSEQ) and taking care of the ball.

In the 2nd half we had way too many unforced turnovers. Sometimes your own offense can be your defense's worst enemy and that proved true for us. We defended well enough to keep Concordia in the 50's, but gave up points off turnovers. Despite that, the game was close throughout and we missed two 3 point attempts in the last 20 seconds to tie the game.

Nick played with great energy scoring 16, grabbing 9 rebounds to go along with 4 steals. Abdul had 15 & 8 in a solid return. Jona had 13 points and 3 assists after battling the flu in the days leading up to the game.


Saturday vs. UQAM

BU           16      18      18      20   -   72
UQAM    25      21      14      16   -   76

Defensively we struggled in the first half giving up hoops to the 2 guys we knew who could beat us. That combined with missing some great looks inside put us in a hole. We just did not come to compete in the first half like we had on Thursday night. To our guys credit that changed in the 2nd half and not playing our best basketball we cut UQAM's lead to a more manageable 8 points. By the 5 minute mark of the 4th we were up a point and things were tight from that point on.

With the score tied and about 22 seconds left we missed a wide open corner 3. UQAM rebounded the ball and attacked. We defended the initial shot well, but they picked up a long rebound & scored the putback to go up 2. They defended our next possession and we had to foul which made it a 4 point loss.

Jona led us with 14 points and 7 assists. Nick & Joany had 13 & 12 points respectively.

All in all, disappointing to start league play with 2 losses. On the bright side, we are still missing key players in our line-up and not playing near our potential yet. There is progress in some areas.

This Friday we travel to Laval in our lone game of the week. They have a very talented and athletic team that is capable of beating almost any team in the CIS on a given night. We will have our hands full, but if we come ready to play it should be a very competitive game.

Rod

Jack Donahue Tourney Results

Jack Donahue Tournament @ U of Ottawa

Friday @ Ottawa

BU        10       8      23      15    -    56

UO        27      14    24      24    -    89

This was a tough one from the start. We lost Abdul for the weekend a couple of minutes into the game with a sprained ankle. That did not help, but it was not going to make a difference in this game.   Ottawa is an experienced and well coached team that played well all weekend. We did a poor job of defending dribble penetration which gave a very good shooting team way too many open looks from the 3 point line. That is something we are working to get better at.

Freshman Guard - Joany Thadal Castor

Not a lot of positives in this game to report on. Freshman Joany Thadal Castor led us with 11 points and he played very well all weekend. Joany would be referred to as a ‘3 and D’ kind of player...(I will give you the credit on that one Bones!!)  A good 3 point shooter who is also a defensive specialist. He did a nice job on both of those aspects of the game this weekend. Jona added 10 points as our only other double digit scorer.

Saturday vs. Waterloo - Overtime

BU          26      15      24      14      13   -   92

UW         10      25      23      21      17   -   96

After getting kicked the night before our guys came out very focused and did a great job of following the game plan in the first quarter and early in the 2^nd quarter. We played well enough to build a 20 point lead before we stopped doing the things that got us the lead. Waterloo to their credit hung tough and did a good job of being opportunistic throughout the game.

The story of the game was at the foul line where Waterloo shot 43 free throws to our 24. I may not have agreed with some of the officiating, but we were simply undisciplined with some of our fouls and did not adjust to how the game was being officiated. If we had looked after that we don’t go to overtime and we do not lose this game.

Freshman Point Guard - Alex Boisse

Late in regulation Waterloo took a 1 point lead with 3.6 seconds to go. Out of the timeout our guys executed well and found Jona who drew a 2 shot foul with 1.5 seconds left to go. So, Jona was heading to the line with a chance to win the game and there is no one I would rather have at the line other than him. Unfortunately, he missed the first, but made the 2^nd to send it to overtime.

In the later part of the game we lost Joany & Nick as they both fouled out. Without them we just did not have enough to hold off Waterloo in overtime as we suffered another close loss. Dave & Jona had 24 & 23 points respectively while Joany added another 14. Owen had 10 points & 6 rebounds in the losing cause.

Sunday vs. Toronto

BU               14      23      22      19   -   78

UofT            15      15      33      13   -   76

I thought we expended a lot of energy in the overtime game the day before and a couple of the guys playing were a little more nicked up. A Noon time start made it a short turnaround between games and with a thin line-up my main concern was to get out of the weekend with no more injuries as league play is fast approaching.

To our guy’s credit, they did not enter the game with any excuses in hand. After a slow start offensively we started to find our flow and built a 7 point half time lead. The 3^rd quarter was a combination of us turning the ball over and Toronto making some adjustments at half time that helped them put 33 points up in just 10 minutes.

2nd Year Forward - Nick Harvey

Throughout the 4^th quarter it was close, but they had built up a 5 point lead with about a minute to go. Freshman point guard Alex Boisse, who was a spark in the 2^nd half,  found his fellow Freshman Joany in the corner for his 5^th 3 point hoop of the game to cut the lead to 2. We managed to hold defensively and got the ball back with 24 seconds left. We did get a decent look initially to tie, but missed. Fortunately Nick grabbed his 18^th rebound of the game and kicked out the offensive rebound to Jona who knocked down the winning shot with 8 seconds to go. Great to get the win, but very happy to see Jona cash in on an opportunity to redeem himself in a late game situation after missing a chance to ice the game the day before. Toronto had one last shot and Nick rebounded the miss to finish the game with his 19^th rebound.

Dave led us in scoring with 20 points while grabbing 8 rebounds. Jona had 18 points and 5 assists. Nick added 17 points and an impressive 19 rebounds. When he is locked in he is very difficult to contain on the glass. He has a great combination of speed, quickness & strength for a kid who is 6’6 and 230 pounds! Joany completed his best weekend as a Gaiter with 15 points and some excellent defense.

Thanks to the BU alumni who came out to support us. It was nice to see Tommy Van Alstine, Grafton Timothy, Jeremy Leonard-Smith, Tim Hunter and Blair Shier out at the games. A special thank you again to Blair who provided the pics in this post along with more that will follow throughout the year. Blair finds the time each year to get to one of pre-season tournaments where he treats our guys to a meal and takes literally hundreds of game action shots of our team. So very much appreciated! Especially since we are not often in BC where he resides. 

That completes our CIS non-conference/exhibition play for the year. We finish that portion with a record of 3-5 vs. CIS opponents. Easily a couple of bounces and calls away from being 5-3 or better, but we are not the only team who could be saying that!

This week we head to the US to face a perennial championship level NCAA D2 team in Southern New Hampshire U at 6 pm on Friday. On the way back home through Vermont on Saturday we catch Lyndon State at 4 pm. SNHU should be on par with the likes of Ottawa and we will definitely have our hands full. I do not know too much about Lyndon, but both games will help us prepare for RSEQ play which opens the following week.

I will keep you posted,

Rod

Gaiters Tour of Alberta

Thursday vs. Mount Royal U

BU          18    23    30    18     -     89

MRU      12    17    19     21     -    69

As I watched our guys warm-up in pre-game I lamented the fact that I had tried to make this trip more budget friendly by traveling on the same day we played. We had a direct flight and we are used to traveling on days we play.  I figured we would be fine. However, I was seeing a sluggish team that did not have the usual hop in their step.

My worries were quelled fairly quickly. We competed from the start, but were a bit sloppy defensively. We did clean things up and dominated the glass. We have not received stats yet, but I would guess we had to be +10 in the rebounding department for the game. 

We pushed the lead up to about 30 points with around 4 minutes left in the game, but gave some of that back to finish the game with a 20 point win. I would estimate that we had at least 4 guys in double figures with Jona, Nick, Abdul & Dave leading the way. Freshmen point guard Alex Boisse was very good in this game as well and may have reached double digits.

Friday @ Lethbridge - Game 1

BU          20     9     18    22   -   69

UL          15    20    21    15   -   71

Lethbridge is a notoriously difficult place to win and we did experience this first hand!  After a good first 8 minutes or so we got into a bit of a funk which lasted through the 2^nd quarter. We struggled with some foul trouble and did not do a great job adjusting to how the game was being officiated. It was much less physical than what we are used to in our league. Frustrating at the time, but it allowed for teachable moments.

Despite not playing our best basketball we managed to hang  around and stay within striking distance. That would not have happened last year, but this team is light years ahead of where were last year at this time. Same guys…but, as the they say, the best thing about Freshmen is they turn into Sophomores! 

Lethbridge opened up an 11 point lead in the 3^rd quarter and led by as much as 7 with about 3 or 4 minutes to go. We managed to put together a bunch of good possessions on both sides of the ball in the final minutes and tied the game up at 69 with under a minute  to go on a 3 by 2^nd year wing Owen Martel. We got a defensive stop the next possession and followed that with an offensive possession where we had a decent look that did not hit it’s mark. That left Lethbridge with the last possession with 16 seconds to go. Our guys defended flawlessly, but unfortunately for us the Basketball Gods were shining on Lethbridge as they hit a tough contested off balance shot from the top of the key as the buzzer sounded! I am not sure we deserved to win this game as we did struggle through a long stretch in the middle. Regardless, I was pleased with the poise we played with down the stretch.

If Dave Belanger has not been our best player this year, he certainly has been our most consistent. Dave spearheaded our 2^nd half comeback and anchored our defense grabbing 14 rebounds while scoring a hard earned 18 points in the paint. He did hurt his knee late in the game and was not able to play Saturday and is doubtful for next week at Ottawa U. Owen and Abdul added 12 & 11 respectively while Jona had 9 points & 7 assists.

Saturday @ Lethbridge - Game 2

BU          17     25     12     17   -   71

UL           6      18     27     26   -   77

The loss from the night before did not sit well with our guys and they showed up focused on both ends of the court in the first half. We communicated very well on defense and everybody did their jobs. Offensively we moved the ball and  we had some great looks. We were up 18 at the break despite shooting the ball poorly. Had we knocked down some shots I feel we would have put the game out of reach by half time.

However, we did not make those shots and the game is 40 minutes long! Lethbridge came out aggressively in the 2^nd half and quickly narrowed the gap  cutting the lead to 3 at the end of the 3^rd quarter. We managed to hang tough in the 4^th and pushed our lead back up to 11 with just under 5 minutes  to go before the wheels just fell off. We stopped talking defensively, missed assignments in transition and could not score at the other end. That is where we really missed not having Dave or Big Jonah in the line-up. Having a big you can go to for a paint score is not only a luxury, but a necessity when you are playing on tired legs. 

We simply ran out of gas in the 2^nd half of this game. Our greatest asset is our depth and we just did not have that due to injuries. Regardless, it was great experience to face the adversity of a short bench, travel and playing on the road in a gym where it is tough to get a win. It does not take the sting out of losing, but I feel pretty confident that this group will be a tough out as the season progresses.

Jona led us with 18 points despite struggling from the 3 point line. Abdul had a quiet 12 points while Owen continues his positive ascent scoring 10. Nick & Duncan Lambert eached grabbed 9 rebounds.

Special thanks to Lethbridge’s native son, Dave Wells, or Wellsie as he is affectionately known nation wide in the basketball community for taking the time to show me around Lethbridge Saturday afternoon.

Next up for us is the U of Ottawa – Jack Donahue Tournament which starts Friday. We open up against the host Gee Gees Friday night at 8 pm. It is our first meeting since facing them in that heartbreaking overtime loss at the CIS Final 8 two years ago. We are both very different teams now and this will be a very tough game for us. Aside from Carleton, Ottawa has been the top program in the CIS over the past 5 years. Saturday @ 6pm we face and young, but talented Waterloo team and finish Sunday @ Noon vs. a very good U of Toronto team that already has some quality wins including a marquee win vs. UNLV in the Bahamas in August.

For our BU Alumni and Friends of Gaiter Basketball, there will be reception at the Royal Oak Pub next to the U of Ottawa on Friday evening before our 8 pm game. Hopefully a few of you can make it out! 

I will keep you posted,

Rod