Badgers fall short in loss to Lancers
Game featured 14 lead changes
Jay Fleming feels confident should the Brock Badgers match up again with the Windsor Lancers.
And he doesn’t feel his teammates should feel any different.
So while the Brock Badgers lost 78- 72 to t he Lancers Wednesday night at the Bob Davis Gymnasium, Fleming and Co. feel they will meet again — possibly as early as next week in an Ontario universities basketball playoffs quarter-final game in Windsor.
In a game where t here were 14 lead changes and the score was tied nine times, the Badgers had plenty of chances to win, missing some easy shots in the first half.
To make the playoffs for the first time in five years, it’s quite simple — the Badgers must win against the lowly Waterloo Warriors at Brock Saturday, although they could clinch as early as Friday night, should the Guelph Gryphons lose at Laurentian. The Laurier Golden Hawks could tie the Badgers for the final playoff spot, but Brock holds the tiebreaker.
Fleming, a Governor Simcoe Redcoats grad who will graduate with high school teammate Andrew Ferguson and guard Andrew Kraus this year, said the Badgers can build on this game, making it close despite the absence of big men Jamison Tipping (ankle sprain) and Brian Nahimana (leg injury).
“If anybody in there doesn’t feel confident, they should because I think everybody knows we can beat that team,” the 6-foot-1 guard said.
“Hopefully, we’ll get one against Waterloo and go to Windsor and get one against these guys next week.”
Fleming, a business communications student, said injuries can’t be an excuse because every team is banged up at this time of the season.
“Whoever’s out there has to play,” he said flatly.
Play is something Fleming didn’t get much of a chance to do his first year with the Badgers, when present coach Brad Rootes and a host of veteran players won the Canadian Interunversity Sport championship. He agreed, however, just being around those type of players was a learning experience.
“You see the habits those guys had and I tried to model myself after them; it was awesome.”
Almost as awesome as doing it with a friend and teammate?
“It’s been fun. Ferg and I lived together and played together all through high school. It is hard to believe — I talk to AK (Kraus) and Ferg about it and sometimes it feels like yesterday was the first year, playing with Brad.”
Rootes said it’s a little special to see his two old teammates graduate under his watch.
“It’s different, but it’s special,” he said. “They’re great to have on the team.
“And Jay is a joy to coach and was a joy to have as a teammate of mine. He’s one of our best defenders and we usually put him on the other team’s best scorer”
Which is exactly was Fleming did Wednesday — shut down Windsor’s Enrico Diloreto, who was fourth in the league in scoring, averaging 18.19 points a game. Largely because of Fleming, he had just two points and two assists Wednesday.
And while the Badgers didn’t execute well down the stretch, there was a fair discrepancy in foul shots — the Lancers shot 27 while the Badgers went to the line just three times.
“Unfortunately, the foul count was 23 to 10,” Rootes said. “But we left a lot of points on the boards in the first half and then in the third quarter, we rested on defence way too many times.
“Every time we pulled away, we let them back.”
Not surprisingly, Rootes doesn’t want the Badgers to back into the playoffs.
“Regardless if it’s a must-win ( situation), our focus is to win the game because we want to go into the playoffs on a win and want to go into the playoffs confident.”