One year later, Gees seek revenge for last year’s quarterfinal upset
Throw the records out the window now, this is OUA playoffs.
You would think those would be the words of a broadcaster or sportswriter trying to hype up the 20-2, one-seed Gee-Gees quarterfinal playoff matchup against the 11-11, eight-seed Laurentian Voyageurs, but no, those came from Gees head coach James Derouin.
The impact of last year’s heartbreaking quarterfinal loss against the Brock Badgers was felt through the entire team this year. “It was a great reminder of how the regular season gets completely thrown out the window when it comes to playoffs,” added the longtime Gees bench boss.
So even holding a 16-game winning streak entering Saturday, the team understands in a one-and-done situation, no favourite is safe from an upset.
Because of course, on paper, the Gee-Gees look like a lock. Holding the stingiest defence in the conference (allowing 65.9 points per game on average) and boasting a solid eight-man rotation, the team has no glaring weaknesses.
They improved upon their major knock from last year — three-point shooting — in part by bringing in the sharpshooting Ankit Choudhary, who led the countries in makes from deep. But it wasn’t just Choudhary who was firing efficiently, as the Gees saw improvements from most returning starters from long range.
Leading the charge among those returnees was Dragan Stajic. The fifth-year guard has been a mainstay in the Gee-Gees locker room since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Stajic joined the Gees in late November after missing the first portion of the season due to injury and proceeded to have a final season for the ages.
Stajic almost doubled his three-point efficiency from last season, finishing the regular season shooting at a 50.9 per cent rate as he quickly became reaccustomed to sharing the backcourt with Choudhary. Six years prior, the two played together at Canada Topflight Academy, an Ottawa area prep school.
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Entering the final regular season games of his career last weekend, the Cambridge native needed nine assists in the swing to Ontario Tech on Friday and Queen’s on Saturday to break the program assists record. The feat seemed doable, at minimum, considering the flashy guard entered the games averaging 5.3 per game, good for fourth in the conference.
The holder of the record, Mike L’Africain, had planned to be in attendance on Saturday at Queen’s. L’Africain had served as assistant coach under Derouin since 2018 before departing this past summer.
During his time with the Gees, L’Africain led the Gees to the national championships four times. His career eventually culminated in a U SPORTS Player of the Year award in 2016, his fifth and final with the program. Stajic describes L’Africain as his mentor, and it’s easy to see how his attendance for the record-breaking pass would have been poetic for both.
But sometimes, you can’t plan life. With his family making the trip to Oshawa to be in attendance, Stajic, unknowingly sitting at eight assists late in the fourth quarter on Friday night, saw his brother waving at him from the stands that he needed just one more assist.
“I was so confused,” said Stajic. “I’m like, ‘Yo, what’s going on?’” Stajic ultimately didn’t need the signal to be translated, and with under a minute left in the game, found Gees forward Brock Newton open for a jump shot at the elbow, cementing him in Gee-Gees history with a game to spare.
“Dragan is an unselfish player, and person,” said Derouin this week. “He’s given everything to this program … seeing how he’s playing is truly special to be a part of. He deserves everything he gets. He plays the right way.”
Stajic agrees with Derouin about the team’s memory, that it has been impossible to get the Brock game out of his mind but says that every experience is something to learn from.
Throw the records out the window now, this is OUA playoffs.
“I wish we didn’t have that experience, but yeah, you learn from everything,” said Stajic. “I think as devastating and heartbreaking as that loss was for me and all the guys, it’s just another opportunity to learn and grow.”
Now in the same position as last year, as first seeds, the group is looking at Saturday as a chance for redemption — with Stajic calling last year’s loss “a little chip on our shoulder.”
Derouin says that the team has been focused all season on flipping last year’s narrative, but says that he sees similar elements in Laurentian as he did in Brock.
Laurentian — a scrappy underdog
The Gee-Gees have beat the Voyageurs twice in the past five weeks, which may serve as a somewhat reassuring measuring stick. Last season, they hadn’t played Brock in three months leading up to that fateful game.
In both games, the Gees limited the Voyageurs to under 60 points, but only exploded offensively at home, winning 59-51 on the road Jan. 17 and 90-58 at home Jan. 25.
The Gees balanced attack shone in that latest win, with Stajic, Choudhary, Justin Ndjock-Tadjore and Jacques-Mélaine Guemeta combining for 72 points on 25-of-46 shooting, including an 11-of-23 clip from deep.
Coming off a season in which the Gees shot a conference-worst 26.9 from long range, the team worked hard to improve that skill both through internal improvements and external additions this past offseason.
“We’ve had so many good players on the court at once,” said Stajic. “Everyone could be an all-star if they went to a different school, we basically have five all-stars on the court at once … when the ball gets zipping, you get some kind of advantage, you create advantages for other people, having that is a luxury to get more open shots and better shot quality.”
Laurentian, meanwhile, stumbled to a 4-18 record last season, but grinded their way to a playoff spot, and with a win over Windsor on Wednesday, a quarterfinal berth. Leading the charge for the Voyageurs on Wednesday were Nginyu Ngala and Ismael Konate, who each finished with 21 points.
Ngala’s 21 points were not unexpected, as the fourth-year guard entered leading the team with an average of 14.9 per game. But for Konate, a 6’6” second-year forward hailing from Mali, the mark set a season high, coming in the biggest OUA game of his life to date. Konate struck gold from deep on all three attempts despite recording just four makes all season prior.
“Laurentian is playing great basketball and they are coming in feeling great about their program and its future, they have a hungry young coach who believes in their guys,” said Derouin. “Saturday will be a war.”
A war maybe, but if I’m going into battle, I want Derouin as my general and the Gee-Gees rotation in my trenches.
