U of O dominated Laurentian on Friday, but were stunned by Voyageurs on Saturday
The U of O’s men’s basketball team split a doubleheader with the Laurentian University Voyageurs on the weekend. On Friday night, the Gees defeated the Voyageurs 76-58 to move their record to 13 wins and two losses.
The Gees were off to the races early on Friday scoring 10 points in the first four minutes of the game and defending well. Forward Guillaume Pépin even had a buzzer-beater to end the first quarter.
“We established our defense, which we did. In that first quarter, we held them to eight points, which I was happy with,” said head coach James Derouin after the game.
Pépin finished the game with 14 points and was the best three points shooter for the Gees sinking half of his attemps (4-8).
“For the last four games, I’ve had difficulty shooting, so I feel like coming into this game, I was really just more focused, more ready, more ready to shoot, ” said Pépin after the game.
Derouin’s team continued to outplay Laurentian in the second quarter, scoring 23 points. Everytime the Voyageurs seemed to put up some points the Gees immediately provided an answer by sinking some buckets of their own.
Eventually, the Gees pulled away and in the end defeated the Voyageurs.
Friday night’s game was homecoming for Ottawa-born Laurentian players Kamil Dia Hantchi, Noah Garba, Cedric Mbiaba, Jordan Katchunga and Rudy Beya.
“It was interesting, the amount of training we’ve been doing and just to come home and see our family is always a great feeling but we loss so it hurts a little more, ” said freshman Noah Garba, after the first game.
The Ottawa-born Laurentian players had better games on Saturday, however, as Laurentian silenced the Grey and Garnet juggernaut beating the Gees 61-60 to end their season on a high.
Nevertheless, the Gee-Gees now move on to the playoffs and wait to see who they will face in the OUA semifinals. The women’s team was inactive this weekend due to players testing positive for COVID-19 on the Voyageurs.
