RSEQ Week #2

Thursday @ #9 McGill

BU       19       25       23       12   -   79

MU      6         15       22       26   -   69

This was kind of a funny game…McGill was without their 2 best players and couple of key veteran guys as they were off to the FISU 3-3 Championships in China. We were without 2 starters & our 6^th man who were are injured. When we play again in a couple of weeks the game will  look a little different from a personnel perspective.

McGill struggled in the first half and we pretty much had our way with them until the middle of the 3^rd quarter despite not playing particularly well…made a lot of mistakes that McGill did not take advantage of.  At that point we did have a 30 point lead which we did not take the opportunity to improve upon. From there McGill was loose, made some plays and we kind of just got caught watching the clock wind down. Very frustrating as a coach!  We will take the road win regardless.

Abdul had 22 points & 14 rebounds to go along with 4 steals. Sr tri-captain Duncan Lambert stepped up to fill the void our injuries created as he had a career high 17 points which included five 3 pointers in the 2^nd quarter alone. Dunc had a nice weekend for us and did  a number of good things in both games. Jordan added 12 points & 7 rebounds in just 13 minutes.

Saturday vs. Laval (OT)

BU                   15       24       21       20       13   -   93

UL                   23       20       10       27       6     -   86

Great atmosphere in our gym on Saturday. The crowd was as large the week before, but this crowd was very loud and engaged. Especially in the 4^th quarter. Fortunate to have the support we have from the community and our students.

Laval was well rested and well prepared as this was their only game of the week. They have a veteran group that is athletic & capable of really scoring at times. They hurt us in transition with their ability to push the ball. Especially in the 1^st half where they controlled the game and we were fortunate just to hang in and only be down 4 at the break.

We had an excellent 3^rd quarter defensively and it would have been better had we not fouled a 3 point shooter after and ill advised turnover in what should have been the last possession of the quarter. Live and learn, we missed an opportunity to go into the 4^th with a double digit lead.

Into the 4^th Laval clawed back to take leads as big as 5 points. We managed to hang on though. With 31 seconds left Laval had the ball up 3. We had our most versatile and athletic defensive line up on and elected to get a stop or steal instead of  fouling…a dicey coaching decision, but our guys made it look like the right one! With about 10 seconds left Kevin stripped their guard of the ball a few feet on our side of midcourt and proceeded to finish the layup at the other end while getting fouled. He made the free throw to tie the game, we held defensively on Laval’s last possession and we were in OT.

In overtime Abdul made a tough shot followed by freshman guard Connor Kelly making an ‘and 1’ layup & FT to put us up 3 for a lead we would never give up.  Connor had great weekend scoring 8 points in each game. With Joany being out it opened up some court time which he took advantage of. 2^nd year guard DJ Ngom sealed the game with a steal as he read Laval’s play perfectly and secured the ball before getting fouled.

2nd Yr Guard - DJ Ngom

Abdul is getting back to his old self as he led all scorers with 25 points. After a sub par game at McGill, Kevin was back to his old self with 21 points & 5 assists. Nervens had moments in this game with 10 points, 7 rebounds & 5 assists, but he is still only scratching the surface of his potential.

Next Game: Saturday we head to Concordia to face the Stingers. ConU is currently 1-1 in RSEQ play and has been touted as one of the favourites to win our league. Take note the game is 4 PM.

RSEQ Week #1

Saturday vs. UQAM

BU                    17       15       26       20   -   78

UQAM             12       27       18       18   -   75

We were not exactly sharp in this game, but all things considered we will take the win. We were playing without Nervens and 2 minutes into the game Joany came out with strained calf. He did not return.  That’s 2 of our starting guards not in the line-up! To compound that Zion dislocated his elbow halfway through the 3^rd quarter…he is our 6^th man and one of our top 4 guards. Our depth is pretty good, but that had us playing some line-ups that are a bit unfamiliar.

Kevin Davis - Sr Tri-Captain

After a solid 1^st quarter we fell apart for 10 minutes. Turned over the ball and made way too many gameplan/scouting report mistakes that led to easy UQAM scores. Fortunately our guys bounced back to play a strong 3^rd Q. After being down 7 at the half we regained the lead before the end of the quarter.  With about 3 minutes to go in the 3^rd Zion made an athletic attempt at blocking a shot, but while heading to the floor he lost balance and used his arm to help break his fall. It resulted in a gruesome looking dislocated elbow. He is OK, but will be out for the rest of the semester. Definitely a bit traumatic for not only Z, but also his teammates. The guys regained composure and came out the break with a nice read on O that lead to a highlight dunk by Jordan. See the video below. 

The 4^th quarter was tight, but we did maintain a small lead throughout pushing the lead to 7 in the final minute to close out the game. Kevin was outstanding with 19 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists (only 3 turnovers), 2 steals & 2 blocked shots. He certainly picked up the slack with the 2 other starting guards out. Abdul struggled, but still managed 17 points and 8 rebounds. Jordan gave us a nice boost off the bench with 13 points  and 2 blocked shots. Both Jordan & Yassin really stepped up in the 2^nd half of this game. Yass had 9 points, 6 rebounds & 4 assists.

Thursday we travel to McGill to face the Redmen at 8 pm before hosting Laval on Saturday night back in Lennoxville.

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.

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)