Saturday 19 January 2008

OUA East: Blues hold off Gaels, sweep season series

Toronto (20-6, 11-3) 83, Queen's (15-8, 9-5) 76 5'11" Nick Magalas and 6'5" Ahmed Nazmi keyed a game-deciding third quarter run as the Varsity Blues kept pace in the OUA East by sweeping the Gaels in a signature CIS game in which both teams executed tremendous offense and shot the ball extremely well in front of an excited crowd in Toronto. The game proceeded as it was billed i.e. raining 3's, as the Blues jumped out to a 10 point lead late in the second quarter before the Gaels scored the final 7 points of the half to trail by 3. But Magalas (14 points overall including 8 in the third quarter) and Nazmi (18 points on 8-12 shooting overall including 10 in the third quarter), allowed the Blues to stretch their lead by matching the hot-shooting Gaels. 6'3" Simon Mitchell had a career-high 29 points including 5-11 from downtown in a tremendous effort for Queen's while 6'6" Mitch Leger added 16 for the Gaels, who shot 11-25 (44%) from downtown. But the Blues were equal to the task, going 12-22 (54%) themselves from 3 in another well-played game (only 21 combined turnovers including only 8 against the Blues). 6'3" Mike Degiorgio produced another workmanlike effort for Toronto with 17 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists. The Blues face Laurentian and York next weekend while Queen's has a date with Carleton.

Ottawa (18-5, 12-2) 73, York (4-20, 2-12) 64 The Gee-Gees shook off a listless first half to outscore the Lions by 18 in the third quarter to claim a nice road win against a very determined Lions team playing as hard as they have at any point this season. York defended and rebounded well to take a 9 point halftime lead but then 6'4" Josh Gibson-Bascombe (19 points 4-8 3's, 7 rebounds), playing with foul trouble all night, and 6'3" Sean Peter (22 points, 8 rebounds) took over in the third quarter as Ottawa ran their sets through and got plenty of layups and open looks to break the game open. 6'9" Dax Dessureault struggled from the floor but still had 10 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists while 6'3" Donnie Gibson kept Ottawa in the game in the first half, finishing with 11 points on the night. 6'3" Amde Evans had a season-high 17 points and 11 rebounds to lead York, while 6'3" Tut Ruach added 14 points, 10 rebounds but was 0-5 from downtown. The Lions outrebounded the Gee-Gees 50-35 including 18 offensive boards but could not overcome Ottawa's third quarter blitz.

Carleton (20-0, 14-0) 101, Laurentian (3-20, 2-12) 76 5'10" Mike Kenny had a career-high 22 points for the Ravens in a foul-fest that saw 56 fouls called (28 against each team). 6'3" Paul Kovacs had 22 for the Vees. Carleton played without 6'7" Aaron Doornekamp , who is dealing a suspected sore back and did not even make the trip to Sudbury but is expected to ready for next weekend's pair of big games at Queen's and vs. Ottawa at Scotiabank Place in the 2nd Annual Capital Hoops Classic.

Ryerson (6-17, 5-9) 89, RMC (0-21, 0-14) 65

OUA EAST STANDINGS
Carleton 14-0
Ottawa 12-2
Toronto 11-3
Queen's 9-5
Ryerson 5-9
Laurentian 2-12
York 2-12
RMC 0-14

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Followed the Carleton game on Laurentian's live stats...noticed that Doornekamp did not play at all.
I wonder was it because he is nursing an injury of some sort or because Dave Smart wanted to rest him and play all his subs.