CIS Hoops.ca

Ottawa 77, McMaster 74

It has been a very tough early season for Coach Joe Raso and perennial Top 10 Marauders. Injuries, graduation, recruiting difficulties and an inconsistent "d" were some of the reasons that Mac simply had not been playing to their usual standards. Tonight in Ottawa, the Marauders were on the verge of regaining their momentum and salvaging the first half of their season as they jumped out to leads as high as 17 and were up 12 points at halftime. Unfortunately for Mac, the veteran Gee-Gees, playing at home and led by emerging All-Canadian candidate Josh Gibson-Bascombe, mounted a furious comeback and defeated the Marauders by 3. Gibson-Bascombe (24 points, 9 rebounds, 6 steals and 2/3 from 3) had an unbelievable second half, picking Marauder guard Mike DiClaudio on several occasions for easy scores, ramming home a pair of dunks and generally putting his team on his shoulders for the victory.

As always, Raso had his team more than prepared and Mac easily dealt with Ottawa's pressure in the full court and double teams in the quarter court, forcing Ottawa to fall back into a half court straight man. Without question, Raso is one of the best in Canada at breaking down teams and getting his players ready to play. Tonight against one of the better teams in the CIS on the road, he and his team almost pulled one out.

For Ottawa, this win showed tremendous character for a group that historically has had a tendancy to lose the closer games but is maturing rapidly with 3 fifth-year players and a strong 8 man rotation. Alex McLeod's 3 with 1:22 remaining finally gave Ottawa the lead for good and Curtis Shakespeare (14 points) and Gibson-Bascombe each dropped a pair of free throws in the final minute to clinch the win. Ottawa was mediocre from the foul line tonight (16-27 until the very end when it mattered to end the night 20 of 31) and defended and made shots when they needed to. For Mac, Adam Steiner had 19 points, 9 rebounds, Martin Ajayi, who sat out about 8 minutes in the first half due to fouls, added 15 while emerging 6'9" freshman Geoff McLaughlin had probably his most effective game as a Marauder with 12 points.

Ottawa and York at 6-1 trail first-place Carleton by 1 game in the OUA East while Mac falls to 3-4, still only 2 games behind front-running Windsor in the OUA West. Mac goes cross-town to face Carleton, who pounded Lakehead, while Ottawa hosts the Thunderwolves tomorrow night.

Wayne Kondro's game story from the Ottawa Citizen can be found here

Ottawa Citizen Article

York 81, Windsor 63

Dan Eves had 34 points and Jordan Foebel had 19 rebounds as York comfortably defeated visiting Windsor by 18. Again, the maturing Lancers, a very formidable group, missed a chance to come up with a key road win against a Top 10 calibre team. The Lions, assuming they can handle Western tomorrow night, should get into the CIS Top 10 next week. Eves went 4-7 from 3 while Foebel had 16 of his 19 boards on the defensive end. York freshman Jason Hoult added 9 points on 3 3's. For Windsor, pg Ryan Steer had 17 while the Allin brothers had 11 apiece. Windsor star forward Kevin Kloostra, coming into the game averaging over 20 points per game, had only 9 in the loss. Windsor travels to Sudbury to face Laurentian and York awaits the Western Mustangs tomorrow night.

Brock 67, Queen's 46

On a night when All-Canadian candidate Brad Rootes goes scoreless, it would be difficult to believe that Brock Badgers could defeat an improving Queen's team by over 20 points. However, this was the case on Friday night and Rootes had a season-high 12 assists despite going 0-9 from the field, Scott Murray had 17 including 5 3's and the Badgers held the Gaels to under 30% shooting including only 5-26 (19%) from 3 to win their second in a row. Chris Keith added 16 for Brock (4-3) which won despite giving up 15 offensive rebounds. Gaels star freshman Mitch Leger went 0-10 from the floor and had only 2 points for Queen's (4-3).

Game Summary

Waterloo 60, Toronto 57

Playing without star forward Ben Katz who hurt his ankle last week, the Blues had to play 4 guys for over 30 minutes apiece and succumbed to the pesky Warriors as sophomore David Burnett hit for 15 points in a balanced Waterloo attack. Toronto shot just 3 for 24 from 3 including a 1 for 8 night for Mo Shafarzadeh. Mike Williams led the Blues with a 19 point-10 rebound double/double as the Blues dropped to 3-4 on the year while Waterloo improved to the same 3-4 record.

Ryerson 79, Laurier 64

The Bakovic brothers had 38 points and 26 rebounds between them as Ryerson won a key road game at Laurier, who played without leading scorer Matthew Walker. Igor had 20 and 12 despite playing only 24 minutes due to foul trouble while his freshman brother Boris had 18 and 14. Newcomer Scott Neil, a 6'1" guard out of Cambridge, led the Rams with 21 points including 6-9 from 3 and former Eastern Commerce guard Khris Montague added 6 points and 6 assists in only 14 minutes.

In other games, Guelph defeated RMC 71-41, (here is a link to the Guelph Mercury article on the game)

Article

Carleton pounded Lakehead 99-70 while Laurentian got big home victory, slamming visiting Western Mustangs 85-64 as Brody Bishop had 20 and Jason Brown 15.

On the evening, the OUA East won 5 of the 8 interlocking games and for the first time since interlocking play began several years ago has a chance to come out on top head-to-head against the OUA West. Entering tomorrow's final night of interlock play, East leads West 31 wins to 25.