Badgers hope to rebound in hoops
Brock hits the hardwood Friday in St. Catharines hoping to return to the win column in men’s and women’s basketball.
It was a winless weekend for the Badgers in Ottawa, as the men dropped an 86-46 decision to the Carleton Rams followed by a 94-91 loss to the Ottawa Gee-Gees. On the women’s side, it was 72-43 in favour of Carleton and 93-53 for Ottawa.
“We had some costly turnovers, four in our game plan defensively that made it hard for us to get back into rhythm in key moments in the third quarter that came back to us,” head coach Madhav Trivedi said after the game against the Gee-Gees.
Brock’s third loss in a row dropped the team’s record to 5-4.
All five starters scored in double digits for the Badgers: Daniel Cayer, with 19 points; Johneil Simpson, 16; Cassidy Ryan, Kascius Small Martin, 15 each; Tyler Brown, 11.
Simpson netted a team-high 14 points in the loss at Carleton.
Head coach Mike Rao’s women’s team is also seeking to end a three-game losing slide.
Only one Badger – Melissa Tatti, with a game-high 22 points — scored in double digits in the loss to Carleton.
“We needed to bring better effort, the intensity in the second half picked up a bit and we tried to do a better job committing to inside the paint,” Rao said. “The lack of consistent scoring from everyone derailed much of our effort.”
Elise Euale, Tatti paced Brock
in points against Ottawa with 12 and 10, respectively.
Queen’s — men, 5-3 ; women, 6-2 — provides the opposition Friday when the Badgers host a doubleheader at Bob Davis Gymnasium. Brock closes out the first half against the York Lions, also
at home. Tipoff for both twin bills is 6 p.m.
Hockey
Brock worked overtime on the weekend to earn four out of four points on the road in women’s university hockey.
After the Badgers edged the Western Mustangs 4-3 in a shootout, rookie forward Morgan Dezell’s goal 2:07 into overtime gave Brock a 2-1 win over the Windsor Lancers the following afternoon.
In the shootout, Annie Berg, Cassidy Maplethorpe, Makyla Porter scored for Brock in regulation. Maplethorpe, Amanda Ieradi found the back of the net in the shootout.
“This come-from-behind win showed the amazing character we have on this team,” head coach Margot Page said. “Special teams were solid once again for us, but we just need to get our 5-on-5 game going again.
“Our goalie, Jensen Murphy, was fantastic tonight.”
Murphy made 33 saves and stopped both Western scoring attempts in the shootout.
At Windsor, Hunter Accursi scored for Brock with 4:41 remaining in regulation to force overtime.
Thursday night’s Ontario University Athletics (OUA) schedule has Brock, 4-1-3-2; hosting the Guelph Gryphons, 6-2-1-1; in a 7:15 p.m. faceoff at SeymourHannah Sports and Entertainment Centre in St. Catharines.
The Brock women wrap up the first half of the season with a 2:15 p.m. puck drop against the visiting Waterloo Warriors.
In men’s hockey, the Badgers went 1-1 at home following up a 2-0 victory over the Laurier Golden Hawks with a 2-1 loss to the Western Mustangs.
Logan Thompson stopped 41 saves for his second shutout of the OUA season and increase his saves total to a league-leading 410. Jared Marino and former Niagara IceDog Justin Brack were the goal scorers.
“Logan was great for us in net tonight,” head coach Marty Williamson said. “Laurier is a big team and we needed to play in their face all night.”
Connor Brown replied for the Badgers in a loss to Western that dropped Brock’s record to 10-5.
Up next for the Badgers is a home game Friday against Guelph, 6-7-2-2; and a game Saturday in Toronto versus the Ryerson Rams. Both puck drops are 7:15 p.m
Wrestling
Brock University and Brock Wrestling Club members pinned down first place at the Ontario Senior Championships in Hamilton.
They led all teams at the oneday competition with nine pins and 29 technical falls.
“It was a good way to finish off the first part of our season,” head coach Marty Calder said. “We had some strong performances and will look to build on those as it will be necessary once we hit championship season in February and March.”
Gold medallists for the Badgers: men, Ligrit Sadiku, 61 kilograms; Cruiz Manning, 65 kg; Ty Bridgwater, 74 kg; Richard Deschatelets Jr., 97 kg; women, Kristina McLaren, 50 kg; Hannah Taylor, 59 kg; Darrion Sterling, 72 kg. Sam Jagas, 57 kg; won gold for the Brock Wrestling Club men. For the women, first-place finishers were Jade Parsons, 53kg; Jessica Brouillette, 62kg; Indira Moores, 65 kg.
Swimming
Brock University’s swim team placed fourth overall at the deBray Divisional Swimming Championships.
The competition, held at Laurentian University in Sudbury, is named after Herb deBray, the Badgers’ swim team founder and first swimming coach.
“Solid group effort with the upper year students leading the way, and the first-year athletes adding a strong voice,” Peter Bradstreet, the current head coach, said.
Maggie Smith won gold medals in 50m backstroke, 50m butterfly and a silver in 100m butterfly.
Gokhan Bozyigit set the pace in the longest race, the 1,500m freestyle, in a new meet record of 16 minutes and 10 seconds. He also won gold in the 200m butterfly, 400m freestyle.
Anthonie Korstanje settled for silver in the 200m breaststroke, and the women’s 400m free relay squad of Jordyn Bandstra, Amileigh Du Toit, Emma Loeschnik, Smith earned bronze.
Brock swimmers are in London, Ont., Saturday competing at the Western Invitational. They travel to Florida for training immediately after Christmas.
Volleyball
Brock entered the between-semesters break on a winning note in men’s volleyball.
Clay Blanchette racked up 16 kills in a four-set victory over the Waterloo Warriors — 25-16, 21-25, 25-20, 25-23.
“It was a very tactical match,” said head coach Doug Hanes, whose team improved to 3-6 in league play.
“I’m proud of the guys, we’re really starting to find our rhythm.”
Marcelo Correa finished the game with five kills, 13 digs, four service aces, 38 assists.
The Badgers were coming off a 3-1 loss to Guelph the night before: 25-15, 23-25, 20-25, 22-25.
Brock’s four-game win streak in women’s volleyball ended on the wrong end of a 3-2 decision to Waterloo — 19-25, 25-19, 25-15, 18-25, 15-10 — to fall to 5-4.
Darby Taylor was player of the game for the Badgers with 12 kills, nine digs.
Laura Condotta, 16 kills, 14 digs; Grace Edwards, 11 kills, seven digs; Sarah Rohr, nine digs; were standouts for Brock the night before in a sweep of Guelph: 25-23, 25-20, 30-28.
“Fantastic match,” head coach Steve Delaney said. “The girls performed really well, especially to hold on, and pull out, the third set.”