MBB: Gaiters Earn First Win Of The Year Over Laval
The Bishop’s Gaiters men’s basketball team won their first game of the season on Saturday night. They defeated the Laval Rouge et Or 74-58 in front of a energetic Mitchell Gymnasium crowd. It was the last home game of the semester for the purple and silver.
The game opened with a torrid pace. The Gaiters (1-1) looked to push the ball down the court as fast and as often as possible. They jumped out to an early 21-15 lead after the first quarter.
The second quarter was much of the same as Bishop’s continued to look to push the ball and Laval (1-3) was content trying to score in a half court set. Laval trimmed the Gaiters lead to 37-32 at the break. It would have been a smaller margin except the Gaiters’ Scott Ring (Ottawa) knocked down a three pointer as time expired.
Bishop’s seemed to grab control early in the third quarter but were unable to deliver a knockout punch as Laval hung around. After three quarters the Gaiters held a narrow 56-50 lead.
Behind the encouragement of their fans the Gaiters pulled away in the fourth quarter extending their lead to as much as 17 points. The final buzzer went with the Gaiters on top 74-58. It was Bishop’s first win of the season and moves them into third place in the conference.
Undoubtedly Bishop’s was led by their floor general Ring who scored 23 points and added seven assists in 31 minutes. Early on he controlled much of the tempo as well. Onnex Blackwood (Scarborough, Ontario) added 14 points and Tim Hunter (Baie D’Urfe, Quebec) 10.
Laval’s Boris Hadzimuratovic (Sarajevo) had 13 points in a losing cause while Thibaud Dezutter (Namur) scored 12 points and Rene-Pier Mathieu (Ste. Marie de Beauce, Quebec) 11 to round out the players in double digits.
“Well it was a win,” said Gaiters head coach Rod Gilpin. “Scott Ring was fantastic. I did feel however that we were undisciplined at times in the third quarter when we had an opportunity to really stretch the lead.”
As a team the Gaiters shot 44.3 percent to Laval’s 31.6 percent however the Rouge et Or outrebounded Bishop’s 46-32. The Gaiters had 16 steals and Laval 26 turnovers which led to 29 of the Gaiters points. By comparison, Bishop’s only turned the ball over 13 times and Laval could only muster 2 steals leading to just 12 points.
The Gaiters are back in action for the final time of the semester on Thursday, November 29. They travel to Montreal to face the No. 4 ranked McGill Redmen (3-0). Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. in Love Competition Hall. Follow all the Gaiters in action at www.gaiters.ca.
