Men's basketball Top 10 tracker: Spartans shoot down Calgary, eye Top 10 ranking

Trinity Western might have picked up a few subway alumni this weekend after taking down Calgary on its home floor, whiles Nos. 4, 6, 7 and 10 each had at least one loss this week. Rob's RPI is in parentheses:
  1. Carleton (1) — Hit a hundred in both games, 118-71 over RMC and 100-75 over Queen's. The Kingston trio of Stu Turnbull (23 points), Aaron Doornekamp (21, with only nine field-goal attempts) and Rob Saunders (11) each put up solid totals in the Queen's game, their last game in their hometown.

    Carleton had an uncharacteristic 27-point defensive quarter in the second vs. the Golden Gaels, once they had built up a bit of a lead. That's something to draw a circle around ahead of the Capital Hoops Classic next Wednesday vs. No. 2 Ottawa (6 p.m. ET, The Score/SSN Canada). It will take the full 40 minutes vs. Ottawa.

  2. Ottawa (4) — It went pretty much as expected in Kingston for the Gee-Gees, who beat Queen's (73-58) and RMC (89-36) in their final games before the Capital Hoops Classic. Gee-Gees sixth man Donnie Gibson had 19 points in 17 minutes vs. the Paladins, capping off his own Kingston homecoming.

    Ottawa sat guard Josh Wright and forward David Labentowicz due to sore backs. The word from uOttawa sports information is that each will be good to go on Wednesday .
  3. UBC (2) — Swept Fraser Valley, 88-65 and, 86-67. Nathan Yu was instant offence for the deep and talented Thunderbirds, putting up 15 points in just 19 minutes Saturday, all via the three-ball.

    Josh Whyte (20 points on 9-of-12) and Chris Dyck (16 on 6-of-10) each had good nights Friday.
  4. Calgary (11) — Their 83-79 loss to Trinity Western might have been foretold by Rob's RPI, which had the Spartans fifth. Brian Banman led a balanced effort with 17 points, including four triples. Trinity Western, which has to be ranked next week, was outrebounded but just made more shots, with an effective field-goal percentage of 54.8%.

    Henry Bekkering topped the Dinos with 17. Tyler Fidler had 16 points in the Dinos' 70-42 win over Simon Fraser on Friday, where they held the Clan to 23% shooting.

    Simon Fraser's point guard, Sean Burke (concussion), didn't play, so it was part Dinos defence, part Clan confusion.
  5. St. Francis Xavier (6) — Four beats two for the X-Men, who beat Saint Mary's 71-70 Sunday in Antigonish, giving them leg up to be top seed at AUS Final 6 in about six weeks. (It's in Halifax.)

    Christian Upshaw (19 points), Terrence Taylor (15), Jeremy Dunn (15 in just 16 minutes) and Tyler Richards (14) carried the X-Men offensively. Saint Mary's got great games out of the IMDB (Iron Men in Da Backcourt), as Joey Haywood, had 29 points and 10 rebounds while Mark McLaughin hooped 17. Neither of them has had a minute's rest in the past three games.

    X has pretty much got through the toughest part in its schedule, notwithstanding a trip to Cape Breton next week and an uncoming home-and-home vs. Acadia. Games like today will loom large when X hosts the AUS Final 6, likely at the No. 1 seed, on the first weekend of March.
  6. Western (7) — It's not often a team has a 40-point swing in one half, but Western did it Saturday in their 99-68 road win at Laurier. The Golden Hawks were actually up by nine at the break and trailed by just six going into the fourth quarter.

    Bradley Smith had 26 points for the 'Stangs, who shot shot 53%, went 9-of-14 on threes (after going 1-for-16 in their loss to Windsor earlier this week) and had just six turnovers.

  7. Concordia (12) — What was that about no one in the Q can possibly like playing home-and-home weekend series? Concordia had its second split in a row, losing 68-61 at UQAM on Saturday. The real story is that Citadins freshmen Adil El Makssound (17 points, three steals) and Gregory St. Amand (17 points, 14 rebounds) had big nights for UQAM, which beat Concordia for the second time this season.

    Damian Buckley had 22- and 23-point outings this weekend. Concordia won 76-59 in the first game Friday night.
  8. UVic (3) — Swept Thompson Rivers, 88-56 and 91-61, to keep pace in one of the country's best divisions. They get Calgary, which is coming off a loss, on their home floor next Friday.

    Tyler Hass needed only 15 shots to score 27 points in the Vikes' win on Friday. That's pretty efficient.
  9. Windsor (9) — Gutted out a 61-57 win Saturday over Brock, as they held their foe to less than 30% shooting for the second straight game. Greg Surmacz outscored Brock's Owen White 21-8 in a matchup of top big men, and the Lancers won despite 22 turnovers, which lays bare their lack of experienced guard play.

    Windsor remains tied with McMaster for second place in the OUA West.
  10. Dalhousie (19) — The Tigers should fall out of the Top 10 after losing twice at UPEI, 75-63 and 78-73. They went cold for long stretches of the second half in both games, including a four-point third quarter on Saturday. Dalhousie, by the numbers, plays great defence. Andrew Black had 27 points and 13 rebounds for the Panthers in the Saturday game.
Outside the top 10:
  • Saint Mary's has now had a pair of two-point wins in the past two weeks, since they beat Acadia 82-80 on Friday. All these close games are leaving the sinking suspicion that the AUS Final 6 will have some serious potential for upsets. After what Acadia did last season, there's a theory that its post-season better prepares teams for nationals than any other conference's. The OUA might want to consider a Final Four, with the No. 1 East seed crossing to play the 2 seed from the West and vice-versa.
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4 comments:

  1. Top game scores for the week:

    27.3 Boris Bakovic (Ryerson, 1/23)
    26.4 Aaron Doornekamp (Carleton, 1/24)
    24.5 Tyler Hass (Victoria, 1/23)
    24.4 Gamaliel Rose (UPEI, 1/24)
    23.8 Damian Buckley (Concordia, 1/23)

    That's Bakovic's second-highest score this year and 17th-highest in the country so far. Doornekamp's is a personal best for the year and 21st overall. Buckley was mentioned above. (The others I don't know anything about.)

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  2. Oh, except those don't count today's AUS games, which for some reason I thought were already over. You may now make your ironic jokes about "east coast bias."

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  3. Not sure where you got that tidbit about St. F.X. hosting the Final 6. As far as I've heard (and according to the AUS website), it's at the Metro Centre as always.

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  4. Thanks for the catch .... my mind's been moving a mile a minute today ... the ads on the AUS website rotate, so there's one for the Final 6 which doesn't give a date or location, then it flips with one for the women's hockey nationals, which is in Antigonish. My mistake.

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