OCAA Men’s Basketball Week Four Recap
By Ryan Greco
OCAA Men’s Basketball Week Four Recap
One school managed to keep their perfect OCAA season alive while another faltered to a tough squad north of the GTA that is starting to turn some heads.
Let’s see how Toronto’s colleges performed this week in OCAA men’s basketball!
Western Division
Humber stays perfect while Sheridan continues to try and find their groove.
Humber (8-0) rallied past Niagara (3-4) for a 90-77 victory on November 20th. Gibson Eduful led the Hawks with 23 points while adding five rebounds and six assists. Trevon Ash dropped 24 for Niagara in the loss.
Humber’s sky-high field goal percentage of 59% came from doing what they have done all year to opponents across the OCAA, out-rebounding Niagara 51-31 and using their size and athleticism to make easy baskets under the rim. A positive for Niagara would be holding Humber to 0% (0-11) from beyond the arc, and creating twice as many points off turnovers (28) as Humber (14).
Elsewhere in the OCAA West division, the Sheridan Bruins (4-4) had another 1-1 week, first falling to Lambton College (3-4) 89-80 last Saturday, and then taking a trip back down the 401 to Brampton and defeating St. Clair College (2-5) 85-69 at home on the Sunday.
In the first game of the weekend, the Bruins weren’t able to hold off a late surge from Lambton, who outscored Sheridan 24-13 in the final quarter.
Despite the loss, Jamal Pryce had a fantastic game for the Bruins, scoring 22 points on 7 of 10 shooting and recording ten assists for the double-double.
Lambton’s Third year forward Shawn Hill dropped 29 points on the Bruins and added seven assists, five rebounds, and three steals, good enough for OCAA Player of the Week honours.
The Bruins then managed to lick their wounds and deal out an 85-69 win over a scrappy St. Clair Saints squad the following day.
Pryce had another impressive day for Sheridan, scoring 21 points and getting seven assists. Meanwhile, the homecoming for Brampton native and Saints rookie guard Nicholas Campbell was all for not, despite leading St. Clair with 13 points on the day.
The only team left for Humber to beat in their division is London’s Fanshawe College (6-1), and they will get that opportunity tomorrow night in London at 8 pm, before taking the mid-winter break for exams.
Sheridan’s last game before the winter break will be against Redeemer (3-4) tomorrow night in Brampton at 8 pm.
Eastern Division
Centennial gets a big win, Durham’s perfect season ends against Georgian, and the log jam at the top half of the division keeps getting tighter.
The Centennial Colts (6-2) had a week to remember.
They first defeated the George Brown Huskies (5-2) last Friday in a 78-77 thriller to claim sole possession of second in the east, only to lose to Scarborough rival the Seneca Sting (6-3) 81-69 just four days later at Seneca’s Newnham campus.
Despite getting out to a 21-9 lead at the end of the first against the Huskies, their opponents would make a game of it the rest of the way, outscoring the Colts 42-31 in the second half.
Kasey Morris’ 30 points and ten rebounds were not enough for the Huskies to overcome their late start, while five different Colts scored in double figures. David Thomas led the charge for Centennial with 26 points and 11 rebounds.
Tuesday night would not prove to be as fortunate for the Colts, as the Seneca Sting capitalized on a poor 33% shooting performance by Centennial. Seneca would also dominate the boards battle, out rebounding the Colts 62-32.
Akeem Small would lead all scores for the Sting with 21 points to go with 11 rebounds, while Kendall Wilson scored 19 for Centennial.
Seneca’s other game this past week was an 88-78 win over Canadore in North Bay last Saturday.
Canadore showed some fight in the early going, only trailing 39-36 at the half and even leading 65-61 going into the third. But a 13-0 run in the fourth would be what put the Sting over the top.
Felix Adjei scored 25 to go along with nine rebounds in the win, while Mike Costello scored 30 for Canadore, going a perfect 10 for 10 from the charity stripe.
For much of the season, the Durham Lords seemed to be the benefactors of a friendly schedule that kept them out of the GTA for seven of their first eight games. After an impressive 77-67 win over Seneca back on November 14th, some of the doubters had found themselves changing their tune.
Although this team is still sitting atop the Eastern Division, there now appears to be some cracks in the armour after a 74-62 loss to the second place Georgian Grizzlies last Friday.
Neither team shot particularly well from the field, but Georgian got the points when they needed them most and rode a 28-19 run in the fourth to seal the win.
Two different Grizzlies recorded double-doubles, while Ajahmo Clarke played the full forty minutes for the Lords and led all scores with 19 points in the loss.
With this result, the Eastern division might have a drastically different outlook by next week. Both of Durham’s games will be on the road against Centennial and George Brown, the two GTA teams that are hot on their trail for top spot in the division.
That’s it for this week’s round up. Be sure to check the OCAA’s official site to find the game nearest you!