Afternoon games in OUA West include Brock at red-hot McMaster, winners of their first 3 games after the Holidays, for a 2 PM start in Hamilton. Despite a lengthy injury list and their top 3 scorers unavailable, the resilient Guelph Gryphons come off a victory against Waterloo and hope to put back-to-back wins together as they host reeling Western for a 3 PM start. First place Windsor Lancers are in Waterloo to face the Warriors as two of the top scorers in the West face with Lancers 6'3" Isaac Kuon, who was in foul trouble for much of Wednesday's loss at McMaster, faces 6'3" Cam McIntyre, who was injured during Warriors loss at Guelph also this past Wednesday. Game time at the PAC in Waterloo is 4 PM. The most important game of the OUA West day is in Thunder Bay as Lakehead and Laurier battle for second place; they are currently tied at 8-3 after the Golden Hawks used a huge third quarter run to take the first of two last night.
Lone action in the QUBL is tonight in Montreal as winless Bishop's faces Concordia at 6 PM, the traditional early start for Stingers home games, with both teams coming off losses, as Gaiters lost by 20 last night at home to Laval while the Stingers were defeated Thursday by 6 at McGill
In the AUS, Acadia hopes to bounce back from a terrible shooting effort early in Cape Breton as the teams meet again in an 8 PM Atlantic time start. 6'8" Owen Klassen continued his fine offensive play with 22 points and 13 rebounds last night against the Capers who got 20 point games from resurgent 6'1" guard Tremaine Fraser and 6'3" wing Paris Carter. In the first of two games in Antigonish, Memorial Sea-hawks visit X with the teams meeting again tomorrow afternoon. Saint Mary's Huskies, coming off an important road win at UNB last night, go into Charlottetown to face last place UPEI in an 8 PM Atlantic time start.
OUA East action should continue to clarify which teams have a shot at second place and a first-round playoff bye with Toronto Varsity Blues travelling to Laurentian to face the Voyageurs. Both teams come off losses last night with the Blues breaking down early in the fourth to lose at York while Laurentian lost a tight 5 point game at home to Ryerson. The Rams face cross-town rival York at Tait MacKenzie in North York and the Lions produced probably their strongest and most consistent overall defensive effort last night in their convincing win over second-place Toronto. Ottawa Gee-Gees are in Kingston to face Queen's and my sense if there were any betting lines for CIS basketball, the Carleton at RMC game would be off the board as #1 faces winless #42 in Kingston.
Canada West has their usual second games of back-to-backs with the early games in the Central time zone including Saskatchewan at Manitoba where the Bisons hung in for a half last night plus Victoria at Winnipeg at the Duckworth Center as the Vikes pulled away in the fourth quarter last night. Scheduling can be a challenge no doubt however would it not be more effective to have Winnipeg teams play at home on alternate weekends so CIS fans could take in games every weekend instead of splitting the crowds. Same scheduling issues are apparent in the OUA East where at times there can be up to 3 concurrent games in Toronto when the Blues, York and Ryerson are all at home on the same night and then no Toronto-based games for weeks later. Thompson Rivers, which made a game of it late on Friday is back at Regina. Also Brandon at Lethbridge and a pair of Pacific time zone games between Alberta and Fraser Valley and UBC and Calgary round out the slate of Saturday games in Canada West.
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