Gaiters Topped by Hawks

Friday vs. Wilfred Laurier

BU         24    20    23    24  -  92
WLU     19    26    31    30  -  106

The irony starts with the fact that I was worried that we would have trouble scoring this year based on early scrimmages & NCAA games. We were not great defensively last season, but at least average. Suffice to say, we have more work to do on the defensive end.  This is also magnified all the more by the fact we as with most teams are playing at a greater pace this year.

Alex, 22 points, 5 assists

From a fan's perspective it would have been a fun game to watch. It was uptempo and lots of offense from both teams. We shot at least 50% from the floor in each quarter with the exception of the 3rd quarter. Laurier shot 67% that quarter and that put them up 9 heading into the 4th. We were playing with a very short bench due to some injuries and we did not have enough to cut into that lead significantly. Our guys did play hard and did compete.


Alex Boisse had a career high with 22 points, but really was not quite himself. Feeling the effects of the flu along with the fact that he was playing extended minutes due injuries. Abdul also had 22 points with 20 coming in the 2nd half. Dave Belanger had an efficient 20 points on 11 shots and has been playing like a 5th year senior should. He has been consistent and very solid in all respects.

Looking ahead, we have an exhibition game on Saturday at Mount Allison. We will travel with our football team on their chartered flight as they travel to St. FX. We will land in Nova Scotia & then drive a couple of hours to Sackville, NB to play the Mounties. Game time is 2 pm AST.

I will send the update out on that game next Monday!
Rod

House - Laughton Round Up

Friday @ #1 Carleton

BU          15    15    15    14  -  59
CU          28    17    25    25  -  95

Rarely does Carleton get out rebounded and they are a supreme offensive rebounding team. We pretty much got dismantled with just that aspect of the game. Our 27 turnovers did not help either. They converted offensive rebounds and turnovers into points greater than the margin of victory. That was the was the game. On the positive front we were decent in defensively in the half court and our defensive transition was much improved over last week.

Joany, House-Laughton All Star

Joany led us in scoring with 18 points. He was also named a tournament all star. Kasey had 10 points off the bench. Abdul had a great start scoring 8 points in the first 7 minutes before he went out with a pretty good charley horse when he got took a knee to his thigh. Not sure it would have the difference between winning our losing, but we would have been more competitive.





Saturday vs. #9 Acadia

BU          22    13    19    13  -  67
AU          29    13    25     8   -  75

3rd Yr Forward, Yassin Naji

This was our 4th game in a row vs. a team that is ranked in the top 10 nationally.  With the exception of a few mistakes following the game plan we were much better defensively. When we did make mistakes we paid a price though as their All Canadian post player went off for 31 points. When you are playing top teams the margin for error is very small and playing hard does not make up for not following a scouting report.

After being down 15 early in the 4th quarter we went on a run and cut the lead to 3 with about 3 minutes to go. Unfortunately we could never overtake Acadia.

Yassin & Harvey Matou each had 14 points. Joany had 13 points  while Dave added 12.

Our next game is Friday at home vs. Wilfred Laurier at 6 pm. Laurier has had some mixed results including a double OT loss to Laval.

In other program news, we received news that last season's team MVP, Jona Bermillo, has signed a pro contract to play in China. Very happy for him and really excited he will have the opportunity to start a professional basketball career. Could not happen to a better guy!

I will keep you posted,
Rod

Gaiters Tour of BC

Thursday at Victoria

BU               19    21    19    25   -   84
UVIC           23    25    26    18   -   92

3rd Year Forward Yassin Naji

We are not having major problems scoring points, but defensively we have things to clean up that will have a significant impact. It might be hard to believe, but the things that hurt us the week before actually improved. However, there was a drop off in other areas that were really exposed by the teams we played in BC as we were playing some good to excellent offensive teams.

In the UVIC game we were at our worst defensively despite giving up fewer points than the last 2 games. We struggled in transition at times and struggled getting matched up. Each time we had an issue UVIC capitalized.

Abdul scored at will on the fast break scoring 25 points. Dave Belanger was solid with 16 points & 7 rebounds. Joany had a quiet 11 points.

Friday @ #5 UBC

BU            11    25    24    32   -   92
UBC         24    31    22    22   -   99

2nd Year Guard Kasey Paul-Buzas

UBC dominated the first half on the glass and in transition. We struggled to score due to their defensive pressure. However, we did manage to figure that out a bit as the game went on. We actually played a pretty good 2nd half as we doubled them on glass and scored 56 points. However, any time that we had a chance to seriously threaten them they had an answer. That is why they are a top 5 team.

Abdul had 21, Alex Boisse 18, Yassin Naji 14, Dave 12 & Kasey Paul-Buzas with 11.

Saturday vs. #3 U of Alberta

BU            20    18    28    18   -   84
UA            17    35    29    30   -   111

3rd Year Forward Andrew Howarth

After a pretty solid 1st quarter the wheels fell of in the 2nd quarter. Alberta is explosive offensively (they scored 103 the night before) and we have the ability to be poor defensively for stretches...that is a bad combination for us. They shot 17-32 from the 3 point line and rode the momentum of the 2nd quarter for most of the game. We had opportunities  to cut into the lead in early in the 4th quarter, but could not capitalize and then they just ran away with the game.

Joany had 17 points to lead our scoring Yassin had his best weekend as a Gaiter scoring 11 points. Harvey Matou added 11 while Kasey & Andrew Howarth each scored 10.

Thanks so much to the Gaiter Alumni who showed up to see us play. Special thanks to Ian McLean, Jeff Szita, Herm Tesfaghebriel & Jordan Winnett for picking up team meals, as well as, Blair Shier for taking & supplying us with great pictures from the 2 games at UBC.

Next up is our 3rd game in a row vs. a top 5 team...#1 Carleton this Friday night at 8 pm at Carleton. The following night we play a very good Acadia team at 6 pm at Carleton. Acadia defeated McGill this past weekend in Calgary.
I will keep you posted.
Rod

Tough Start at Home

Friday vs. Queen's

BU          14   19   22   11   -   66
QU          21   25   20   15   -   81

Full credit to Queen's as they did a very good job defensively and we never found our rhythm. Shooting 2-26 from the 3 point line is not going to win you many games and that was the case here. Defensively we had some issues all weekend. Those will be looked after with some practice and video sessions though. Regardless of anything we knew we were playing a good & currently underrated team with a point guard that is I think is exceptional.

Playing from behind all game was not ideal. We did manage to build some momentum late in the 3rd quarter and early in the 4th. With 7:30 to go in the game we were down 4 points. Unfortunately we only scored 4 points the rest of the game. We did not turn the ball much during that period, but missed  a lot of good shots. We were still within striking distance with 3 minutes to go as it was a 6 to 8 point game, but we could not capitalize on opportunities.

2nd year guards Alex Boisse & Joany Castor Thadal led us with 11 points each. 2nd year transfer Kasey Paul-Buzas added 9 add points. Freshman forward Harvey Matou had 9 rebounds to pace us there.

Sunday vs. Ottawa

BU          15   18   23   14   -   70
UO          20   23   28   14   -   85

We were a little better offensively in this game, but defensively we continued to struggle. Ottawa can be a tremendous 3 point shooting team and we did a decent job from that perspective as they only shot 6-24. However, we did not guard the ball very well in 1-1 situations. That is something we can improve on quickly based on the guys we have.

Just like the Queen's game we played from behind throughout. We managed to stop our own runs most of the time though and could not make a serious run at them. We had some great offensive & defensive possessions, but we also had some horrid possessions. Closing the gap between our worst & best possessions will happen with time.

Joany bounced back from a poor shooting game vs. Queen's to score 19 points on 12 shots. Abdul was solid all around as he had 15 points, 7 rebounds & 4 assists. That should be a little less that what he could average in each of those categories. It would not surprise me if he has a triple double at some point this season. 3rd year forward Duncan Lambert had 12 points as he went 4-8 from the 3 point line.


Next up is our tour of BC. Our first game is Thursday in Victoria at Belmont Secondary School vs. UVIC. It does not get any easier as we head back to the UBC Thunderbird Invitational to face UBC on Friday night and then Alberta Saturday. Both likely to be top 5 team USport teams this year. Hope to see a few of our BC alumni out there! Competition will be very challenging, but our team is in definite need of a road trip together at this point.
Rod

Gaiters Open USport Play at Home this Weekend

Typically we do not have too many non-conference games at home, but this year is a bit of an anomaly as we host 5 games in Lennoxville before January 1st.

This weekend we open up Friday night vs. a mature & talented Queen's University team and follow that up on Sunday afternoon facing national power U of Ottawa. See the rest of our non-conference schedule below and the full schedule at:   http://gaiters.ca/schedule.aspx?path=mbball

Gaiters' Non-Conference Home Schedule
Friday September 30th vs. Queen's at 7pm
Sunday October 1st vs. Ottawa at 1 pm
Friday October 20th vs. Wilfred Laurier at 7 pm
Friday December 29th vs. UNB @ 1 pm (at Alexander Galt Regional High School)
Saturday December 30th vs. UNB @ 5 pm

For our alumni & fans on the West Coast. Next week we will be in beautiful British Columbia:

Exhibition Game - Victoria, BC
Thursday October 5th vs. UVIC @ 7 pm (PST) (at Belmont Secondary School )

UBC Thunderbird Invitational
Friday October 6th vs. UBC @ 7 pm
Saturday October 7th vs. U of Alberta @ 5 pm

Season Comes to an End...

Wednesday vs. Concordia

Score by Periods      1  2  3  4   Total
Concordia........... 19 18 23 19  - 79
Bishop's............ 16 14 25 21  - 76

As has been the case for the past few weeks our guys really competed hard and played

to the final whistle. We were down a couple of more bodies as Owen got a concussion in theMcGill game last Saturday and Andrew Haworth, who had been starting in Dave Belanger's spot, blew out his ankle in practice last week. That left us with 8 healthy bodies and I'm 

pretty sure I have never coached a game at this level with just 8 guys. The warm up 

reminded me of a men's league game warm-up with just the 8 guys in the layup lines!

Despite being shorthanded our guys made it a game. Concordia had a brief run in the 3rd 

pushing the lead up to 9 which was quickly trimmed down and the score remained tight. 

With just under 15 seconds to go Concordia took a 6 point lead. We came down the floor 

and Duncan Lambert knocked down his 5th three point shot of the game to cut the lead to 3 

with 7.5 seconds to go. Concordia called timeout which automatically advances the ball to 

the sideline in the front court. We have a line-up in that is pretty good at creating turnovers 

in this situation. So we feel still have a chance. We nearly steal ConU's first inbound attempt, but we have a foot on the line as we recover the ball. We deflect the 2nd attempt back out of bounds and we steal the 3rd inbounding attempt where Joany ends up with a 3 pt attempt from 35 feet that narrowly misses. Tough loss, but proud of our effort!

Abdul led all scorers with 18 points. Jona, playing in his final game at BU, had 17 points & 8 assists (1 turnover! More on Jona later). 2nd year forward Duncan Lambert had a career high 15 points while freshman Alex Boisse added 13. 

Saturday at UQAM

Score by Periods      1  2  3  4   Total
Bishop's............ 19 14 21 15  - 69
UQAM................ 19 18 16 25  - 78

Much like the last few games (excluding McGill) this game was tight and decided in the final minute. It was a 2 point game with less than 2 minutes to go and we just ran out of gas.  Wednesday night took a lot of us and our guys were playing on fumes in the 2nd half. They did a great job hanging in, but UQAM was fresher and their size wore us down.

 Fab Freshmen wearing #15,  Onnex Blackwood & now Joany!

Abdul led us with 17 points, Jona had 13 and Joany completed an excellent freshman season with 11 points and 3 steals.


So, that completes a season with no shortage of struggles and was one of those where I could say if you coach long enough you will see everything.  We realistically were not looking to challenge Carleton for a CIS championship, but with a little luck from an injury perspective we definitely would have been a playoff team and had a better than .500 record in non-conference play. 

Definitely a 'what could of been' type of season, but injuries are part of the game as is attrition. Despite everything it was a season that will help our core move forward as all but 2 guys were 1st or 2nd year players. Lots of teachable moments and character building opportunities. As difficult as is to finish outside of the playoffs I felt very proud of how our guys played the last few weeks. They played hard every second, competed, played unselfishly and they learned to deal with adversity. I can say it was truly rewarding to coach the group of guys that finished the season together.  

CIS basketball is now a major 12 month a year commitment for athletes. Attrition is much higher than it was even 8 - 10 years ago and you have to love it if you are going to make that commitment. Due to education, technology and increased expectations, athletes are better trained, coaches are better prepared and the game may even be played at a higher level, but a lot of what made the experience of being a CIS student-athlete special has disappeared unfortunately... for better or for worse. 

Moving forward the only guy we lose from our core is Jona Bermillo. Jona has been a fantastic teammate and a great kid to coach. Certainly represents everything we want in a Gaiter and he will be a proud alum moving forward. He had an exceptional career at BU...RSEQ All-Rookie team, soon to be 3 time RSEQ Allstar, played in 3 RSEQ finals with 1 RSEQ championship and he hit several huge shots in his career. Not sure I have coached someone who has come up bigger than Jona when the game was on the line. This season Jona led the league in assists and steals while finishing 3rd in scoring...he will be missed!

These guys were a big part of our last turnaround season! 

Truly appreciate the support we receive from our alumni, family & friends of Gaiter Basketball. It has been nice to see our alumni in the crowd in Montreal recently despite that fact we were not in a championship run. There is always optimism for next season. With a little luck on the recruiting trail and from an injury perspective I feel sincerely that next season with be quite different from this one. Nothing to do, but get to work on making that happen! 
I will keep you posted. 
Rod
   

Saturday @ McGill

Saturday @ McGill

Score by Periods      1  2  3  4   Total
Bishop's............ 16 17 16 22  - 71
McGill.............. 27 24 23 15  - 89

McGill has been playing at a very high level the last few weeks. They defeated Concordia by 27 on Thursday and UQAM by 29 the weekend before. I am not really one for moral victories, but despite not having a chance to defeat McGill on Saturday I was proud of how hard our guys played until the final horn. This game could have easily been a 38 point loss instead of an 18 point loss. Especially when you consider that Laval beating UQAM Friday night eliminated us from the playoffs. 

On the positive side of this game, we have 5 players score in double figures. Freshman point guard Alex Boisse had 14, Abdul had 13 and 12 rebounds, Joany had 12, Yassin had 11 and Jona chipped in with 10. 

Jona Bermillo - 5th Year Captain

We finish up the season hosting Concordia on Wednesday night and traveling to UQAM on Saturday for a 7 pm game. Wednesday night will make Jona Bermillo's final game at the Mitchell Gym. He has had an excellent career as a Gaiter being named an RSEQ Allstar 3 times, playing in 3 conference finals and winning 1 of those championship games. More importantly, he is a fantastic person and has been a great teammate. He graduated with a degree in Economics and is hoping to play professionally somewhere in Asia next year. We are wishing him the very best and would love to see him go out with a couple of victories! 

I will keep you posted,

Rod

Falling Short vs. Laval

Saturday vs. Laval

Score by Periods      1  2  3  4   Total
Laval............... 16 16 19 19  - 70
Bishop's............ 12 26  8 22  - 68

My apologies for getting this out a day late. I try to get it out at the same time each week win or lose. This week I was away recruiting from Sunday morning through Tuesday with no access to my laptop. 

This loss puts us in a precarious situation. Any BU loss or Laval win now eliminates us from the playoffs. We played again with a bit of a depleted bench. Really missing Dave Belanger at times as he has been the only reliable inside scorer we have had since Big Jonah went out with his concussion in October. Regardless, I thought our guys played well, played hard and played together. 

After a good first half we just could not score in the 3rd quarter. We missed numerous layups and did not actually score until 7 minutes into the quarter. From that point on we played very well on both sides of the ball. We pretty much played 5 guards the entire 4th quarter. What we lost from a rebounding perspective we made up with ball control and defensive pressure. 

Rookie of the Year Candidate - Joany Thadal Castor

Laval did have their largest lead of 9 points in the 4th, but our small line-up did a good job of getting stops and converting in transition for easy scores to gain a 2 point lead with just over a minute to go. However, the small line-up that got us the lead got over powered on Laval's last score when they scored off their 2nd offensive rebound of the possession. With score tied and the ball at our finger tips, Laval managed to grab the ball and score the winning basket with 15 seconds to go. Definitely a disappointing loss, but I am very proud of how our guys competed and played for each other. This season has seemed to have it's challenges every week, but despite the results it has only pulled our team closer together. 

Jona led us with 16 points and 7 assists. Abdul & Joany added 14 and 12 respectively. Owen was solid off the bench and chipped in with 9 points. 

This Saturday afternoon we travel to McGill for a 'do or die' game at 3 pm. Hope to see a few friends, fans and alumni out at that game! 

I will keep you posted,

Rod

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