Gee-Gees feel ‘blessed’ to win squeaker vs. Bishop’s
Caleb Agada used “humble” and “blessed” to describe how uOt-tawa Gee-Gees men’s basketball team members felt Friday.
A person of lesser faith might also employ “lucky” to describe the Gee-Gees, but that wouldn’t be entirely appropriate, because it would undersell the resolve they displayed in rallying to defeat the Bishop’s Gaiters 91-85 in overtime in a Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship quarter-final Thursday night.
The Gee-Gees next face the Ryerson Rams Saturday night. The other semifinal features the 10time national champion Carleton Ravens against the eight-time-champion Victoria Vikes.
“We have played Ryerson probably seven-plus times in the last two, three years, so we definitely know a lot more about Ryerson than we did about Bishop’s,” said Agada, a third-year player. “But it’s also more dangerous because, in the last two years, we haven’t lost to Ryerson, so they definitely have something to prove and they’re definitely going to take it personally. “We are going to expect a fight.” The Gee-Gees, who led all CIS teams in scoring during the regular season, managed just 28 points in the first half on Thursday and trailed for most of the second half. Agada made two free throws with 10 seconds remaining to force overtime.
He said several thoughts raced through his head as he stood at the line, including those about his mother and sister in the stands of Ryerson’s Mattamy Athletic Centre and how his mother would have been praying for him.
“I also thought about Johnny (Berhanemeskel) and Gab (Gabriel Gonthier-Dubue),” he said, referring to the Gee-Gees’ fifth-year players, “and how we couldn’t let them graduate in this type of situation. So then I took a couple of breaths and was able to knock them both down.”
The Gee-Gees defeated the Gaiters 80-66 in a preseason tournament game at Montpetit Hall, but Agada said what they saw then and what they saw on videotape of a slower-paced, lower-scoring Bishop’s team during Quebec conference play didn’t match up with the speedy buzzsaw they ran into Thursday.
U of O was outshot (71-68) and badly outrebounded (53-34), but made 25 of 40 free throws to just nine of 13 for Bishop’s.
Agada was 11 for 14 from the line, which, combined with 5 for 12 shooting from the field, produced a team-high 22 points.
“The way Bishop’s played, they deserved to win,” he said. “They played with heart, they played unbelievable, so the fact that we won is a blessing, the fact that we went into overtime and the new (format) at nationals is that you get the second day off, that we played a hard game yesterday and get a rest today, that’s also a blessing.”
The Ravens had no such issues one day after their quarterfinal.
Brothers Philip (31 points) and Thomas Scrubb (18) almost outscored the Saskatchewan Huskies by themselves and spent most of the second half on the bench as teammates completed a 90-50 rout to set up a semifinal matchup with the Vikes, who edged the Dalhousie Tigers 57-56.
Carleton defeated Victoria 7870 in a CIS semifinal last year at Canadian Tire Centre.
Similarly, Ottawa vs. Ryerson is a rematch of last weekend’s bronze-medal game in the Ontario University Athletics Final Four, which the Gee-Gees won 79-66.
That, however, was with homecourt advantage, Saturday night’s benefit for the Rams, 82-68 winners against the Windsor Lancers 78-64 in their opener.
“We are just very humble and very thankful for the opportunity we have,” Agada said, “and we are trying to capitalize on it.”