Brock men net bronze medal

Cassidy Ryan scored 19 points, Tyler Brown 13 and Johneil Simpson 11 to help the fourthranked Brock Badgers defeat the No. 2 seed Ottawa Gee- Gees 69-67 for the bronze medal at the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) men’s basketball championships.

Ottawa, playing on the home court of crosstown rival Carleton, had a chance to force overtime in Saturday night’s third-place final at the four-team championship but Ottawa missed a jump shot at the buzzer.

It was Brock’s first provincial medal in men’s basketball since 2008, when they also beat Ottawa for the bronze.

Head coach Charles Kissi praised the Badgers for rebounding from an 89-64 loss to the top-ranked Carleton Ravens in the semifinal round with a strong performance the following night.

“We played 40 minutes. I couldn’t be prouder of a group of guys,” he said. “They battled, they worked, they defended, they were resilient.”

Brock took a 21-18 lead into the second quarter, and the Gee-Gees appeared listless until head coach James Derouin took a technical foul in a clear bid to fire up his troops. Going deep into his bench Derouin found just enough spark to draw Ottawa within 38-34 at the half.

The Badgers increased their lead to 10 points late in the third quarter after Gee-Gees all-star Caleb Agada went to the bench with his fourth foul of the game.

Ryan Bennett drained a threepointer to put Brock up 63-53 with 5:04 remaining, but Ottawa, with Agada back on the floor, replied with a 9-0 run to make it a onepoint game with two minutes left on the clock.

Rookie Michael Asemoto gave the Badgers some much-needed breathing room by coming off the bench and scoring the next four points to increase Brock’s lead to 67-62 with 1:11 left in the game.

In the final 35 seconds of regulation, the Badgers were clinging to a 68-64 lead when two fouls were called against them. Ottawa’s Brandon Robinson made both of his shots from the free-throw line, but Agada knocked down just one to make in 68-67.

Dani Elgadi was fouled on Brock’s next possession and went 1-for-2 from the charity stripe to put Brock up 69-67.

Robinson had a chance to force overtime on Ottawa’s final possession but he missed on a jump shot as the Badgers held on for the win.

Ryan was named player of the game.

“I thought if I was physical, I’d draw a lot of fouls and get to the line against them,” he said.

Agada led all scorers with 22 points, and Robinson added 14 for the Gee-Gees.

Derouin thought Ottawa was undone by poor foul shooting. The Gee- Gees shot 60 per cent from the free-throw line, draining only 15 of 25 attempts.

Brock shot 23-for-53, 43.4 per cent; from the floor, including 7-for22, 31 per cent; from beyond the three-points arc; and 16-for-18, 88.9 per cent; from the charity stripe.

Ottawa finished 22-for-57, 38.6 per cent; from the floor, and 8-for21, 38.1 per cent; from long range.

Simpson, with 24 points, including five three-pointers; Ryan and Trevor Thompson, nine points apiece; were top contributors for Brock on offence in Friday night’s loss to Carleton in the semfinals.

In the gold medal game, it was the second-ranked Ryerson Rams stunning previously undefeated Carleton, the top seed, 86-79.

While the Ravens lost their second consecutive OUA title to the Rams, they will still be advancing to the Canadian championships in Halifax seeking their 13th national title in 15 years.

Carleton went on to win it all in 2006, 2007, 2011 and 2014 at nationals after settling for the silver medal at the OUA championships.