At least No. 8 Dalhousie and No. 10 Toronto went down by double-digit margins vs. higher-ranked teams, so the voters have to weigh that in next week's poll.
The week of upsets in the OUA West continued on Friday with Laurier beating No. 6 Lakehead by 10 points.
- UBC (11-0 CW Pacific, 1st in RPI through Saturday) — Swept Fraser Valley (97-63, 91-78) with Josh Whyte (23 points) and Blain Labranche (21) doing the heavy lifting in the closer game on Saturday.
The Cascades, who had an early 13-point lead, got 30 from Joel Friesen.
Next week: At Lethbridge (Fri.), at No. 4 Calgary (Sat.) - Carleton (11-1 OUA-E, 2nd in RPI) — Won 80-61 on Saturday in a fairly typical Carleton-Toronto contest, hard-fought, a lot of ebbs and flow in momentum, and some snarliness (U of T got a couple technicals in the dot-the-Is stages). Carleton led just 34-30 at halftime thanks to U of T's ability to disrupt on defence and a great night from Nick Magalas (33 points on 10-of-20), who did all he could to make up for the absence of injured Nick Snow.
Carleton pulled away thanks to its ability to create great looks for Elliot Thompson (24 points, 6-of-11 on threes) and Mike Kenny (20, 4-of-10 from outside). Both hit back-to-back threes twice in the second half, the latter instance coming during an 11-0 fourth-quarter run after the Blues had got within four.
The Ravens did a number on Ryerson on Friday with in an 89-49 win where Kyle Smendziuk outscored Boris Bakovic (9-7), who was ejected after getting a double technical late in the first half. Five Ravens were in double figures, led by super-frosh Tyson Hinz with 20.
Next week: Host Queen's, RMC. - St. Francis Xavier (9-0 AUS, 4th in RPI) — Beat No. 8 Dalhousie 69-54 on Sunday after an 81-72 win over Acadia.
Next week: At Acadia (Fri.) - Calgary (10-3 CW Prairie, 3rd in RPI) — Lost 82-80 vs. Alberta, which it beat handily (80-54) just 24 hours earlier. The Golden Bears' rookie sensation, Jordan Baker, had 26 points and 11 rebounds, and Alberta held Calgary to 32% second-half shooting. Every good team has a few halves like that in its system, so until more evidence mounts, treat this as a blip for the Dinos.
Of Calgary's big scorers, Ross Bekkering and Robbie Sihota each scored 20-plus in each game, but Tyler Fidler was 0-for-6 in the loss.
Next week: Host UVic and No. 1 UBC. - Cape Breton (7-1 AUS, 5th in RPI) — At Acadia on Sunday afternoon after a 15-point win over Dal (80-65) on Saturday where Jimmy Dorsey went off for a career-high 32 points.
The Capers had almost as many rebounds off the offensive glass (26) as Dal did defensively (27).
Next week: Two-game series at Saint Mary's (Fri. night, Sat. afternoon) - Lakehead (10-2 OUA-W, 7th in RPI) — Split at Laurier (69-59 loss, 79-65 win). Scott Morrison's team spread the scoring out (four players with between 11-14 points, with Jamie Searle and Yoosrie Salhia each notching double-doubles) in the second game.
Friday, the Thunderwolves' post-mortem might have dwelled on the fact Salhia's 22 points was twice as many as their next-highest scorer. Brendan King, the second-year combo forward who's a grad of General Panet in Petawawa, scored in double figures in both games this weekend.
Max Allin (20 points, including 6-of-9 on threes) was nails for Laurier in their victory. Meantime, someone is bashing his head against the wall for not starting Salhia or Thompson in the MUBL. His name rhymes with "ate Sager."
Next week: Two-game series vs. Guelph. - Windsor (9-3 OUA-W, 8th in RPI) — Nice bounce-back road win Saturday at McMaster, winning by five (82-77) after being down five at the break. Andre Smyth (19 points, 10 rebounds) was integral, as was the steady young hand at the point, Josh Collins (eight assists with only one turnover).
Mac's Cam Michaud (23 and 10) had his second 20-point night in a row since being installed at the 4-spot. This might have a silver lining for Mac. They would have stayed in the hunt with some made free throws. They were an awful 17-of-31, including 5-for-14 from Keenan Jeppesen, who had just nine points.
Next week: At Western (Wed.), at Brock (Sat.). The big home series vs. Lakehead on Jan. 29-30 could decide first place. - Dalhousie (5-5 AUS, 18th in RPI) — Lost by 15 at home to each of the other two ranked AUS teams after falling 69-54 to No. 3 St. FX on Sunday.
Lead guard extraordinaire Simon Farine had 26 points, eight rebounds in the 80-65 loss to Cape Breton. The rest of the Tigers team exclusive of Farine shot just 34%.
Next week: At Memorial (Sat.-Sun.) - Ottawa (10-2 OUA-E, t-9th in RPI) — Won at Toronto (74-65) and Ryerson (92-63). Josh Gibson-Bascombe averaged 18 points and nine assists for the weekend, with Warren Ward (17 vs. U of T) and Donnie Gibson (21 vs. Rye on 8-of-13) alternating as the second scorer. Matt Riendeau had solid stats inside.
Next week: Host RMC, Queen's. - U of T (6-6 OUA-E, 12th in RPI) — Home losses to Ottawa (74-65) and Carleton (80-61) might make it harder to justify a Top 10 vote.
The Blues somehow hung in for three-plus quarters with Carleton despite having big man Andrew Wasik in foul trouble, which led to getting outrebounded 47-16. .
U of T caught a break, though: Queen's (7-6) lost 79-74 at Laurentian, so the Blues and Gaels are even in the loss column.
Next week: At Laurentian and York.
- Is Simon Fraser (9-2 CW Pac., 6th in RPI) going to get any Top 10 support after sweeping Trinity Western (including a 12-point win Friday, with Chas Kok canning 6-of-8 three-pointers)? The Clan, running second in the Pac-D, got help when UVic was upset 80-69 by Thompson Rivers (with 7-foot-2 Greg Stewart counting 24 points and 19 rebounds).
Trinity Western's fallback is it needs time to "gel," with all the transfers and players coming off injury needing to get into rhythm.
Meantime, Simon Fraser has a two-game lead on UVic (7-4) and is up three on Trinity Western. - For anyone wondering, that was the WolfPack's first win against the Vikes, whom coach Thom Gillespie used to work for. Second-year guard Hudson Naylor was an X-factor, giving TRU an extra ballhandlere during a tight fourth quarter.
- How about Brock's rookie of the year candidate, Clinton Springer-Williams, scoring 23 points in his first CIS game in his hometown of London, an 85-80 Brock win over Western.
- Speaking of, that game had the line of the week: Western's Andrew Wedemire had 27 points, 18 rebounds and six assists.
There's a pretty good reason why Boris Bakovic played only 16 minutes and scored only 7 points Friday.
ReplyDeleteWith 34 seconds to go in the first half, Bakovic was called for a charge.
He...ahem...begged to differ and as result, was nailed with two T's and thrown out of the game.
At that point, Ryerson was pretty much out of the game anyway.
Interesting that both of Lakehead's losses followed impressive wins.
They beat Carleton but were slaughtered by Ottawa the next day
Lakehead sweeps McMaster but then loses to a Laurier team that finished dead
last at the Shoveler tournament in Halifax.
As far as Toronto is concerned, without Nick Snow, it's a no go.
In an odd coincidence, both Nick Magalas of Toronto and Boris Bakovic of Ryerson scored 33 points in a losing cause Saturday.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately for both players, their team mates scored fewer points cumulatively than they did, resulting in easy
triumphs for both Carleton and Ottawa.
It appears that all that is standing between Carleton and a 10th straight
first place finish is their two games with Ottawa.
Toronto certainly and maybe Dalhousie appear destined to exit the top 10.
Simon Fraser is a good bet to get a top 10 spot.
Dal is 13-7 overall but a closer look at their schedule thus far reveals
that most of their wins came against teams that are below .500.
Against nationally ranked teams, Dalhousie is 0-6, losing twice to Cape Breton and X,
as well as Calgary and Ottawa.
Their cross town rival St. Mary's, on the other hand, has beaten both X and Cape Breton.
No way Calgary should lose at home to Alberta.
ReplyDeleteI can sort of understand this kind of result if they were on the road, but come on.
This is the poorest Bears team in many years.
A loss like this doesn't help Calgary's credibility.
There are 9 teams in the top 10 RPI who are also in the CIS Top 10. Waterloo is the other team. That is all.
ReplyDeleteTop 10 (1) U.B.C (2) Car (3) Sfx (4) CAL (5) CB (6) Ott (7) LH (8) Win (9) SF (10) ? A case for Ottawa moving up. Defeated LH , Mac, Toronto, Dal . Lost in OT to Windsor , on 8 game winning streak . A few teams could be 10 th (Not Dal ,possibly TO ). No one else really stands out . Calgary and Cape Breton have big games coming up. Cape Breton is over rated (weak conference , could easily be ranked lower if Dal was not ranked in top 10) . We will see how Calgary does against UBC this week . Will determine if they deserve a 4th place ranking.
ReplyDeleteBy the same token we'll see if UBC truly are the best team in the country, by sweeping their southern Alberta trip.
ReplyDeleteThe Birds have played four games on the road so far, two against TRU and against Winnipeg and Manitoba.
Not exactly a stiff challenge.
Of course, if Calgary played like they did in their loss to Alberta, UBC would wind up
unscathed and in a position to run the table for the rest of the season.