No shortage of playoff excitement
Brock opens men’s, women’s basketball playoffs on home court
Home cooking tops the menu in St. Catharines tonight when playoffs tip off in men’s, women’s basketball and continue in men’s hockey.
Brock hosts Laurier, Lakehead, respectively, in women’s, men’s hoops at Bob Davis Gymnasium, and the Badgers open a best-of-three men’s hockey quarter-final against Western across town at SeymourHannah Sports and Entertainment Centre.
Only the eighth-seeded women’s hockey team, at top-ranked Guelph for Game 1 in a best-of-three series, opens post-season play on the road tonight.
Guelph hosts opener
Seventeen points separated Guelph, 16-3-2-3; and Brock, 8-8-6-2; in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) women’s hockey standings, but Badgers split the season series with the Gryphons.
They lost 6-1 Nov. 29 at home and won 4-3 Jan. 9 on the road.
“Guelph is a fantastic team to play against. We always enjoy our games against them,” head coach Margot Page said. “They are very skilled and play well as a group. We have had some success versus them this year, but we will need to bring our ‘A game’ if we want to come back for Game 2 leading the series.”
Game 2 is 7:15 p.m. Friday at Seymour-Hannah. A third game, if needed, goes Sunday in Guelph.
Brock closed out the season with back-to-back home games. After edging University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 3-2, on Pink in the Rink Night, they lost, 2-1, to Queen’s on Seniors Night.
Maggie Spratt-Mallick, with two goals; and Carley Blomberg scored in the win. SprattMallick replied for the Badgers in the loss.
Brock players took the ice against UOIT wearing special pink jerseys to promote breast cancer awareness.
Spratt-Mallick was awarded the Oonagh Hastie Bursary Award in a pre-game ceremony.
Honouring the memory of Hastie, an original member of the Niagara Women’s Recreational Hockey League, the award is given to a player who exemplified all-around sportsmanship and leadership.
Hastie died of cancer in 2015 at age 54. Spratt-Mallick was among five graduating players honoured in a pregame ceremony before the season finale versus Queen’s. Marissa Graham, Amanda Ieradi, Brenna Murphy and Jensen Murphy also were recognized for their career contributions to women’s hockey at Brock.
Second-round series
Third and fourth time need to be the charm if Brock hopes to advance to conference semifinals in men’s hockey.
That’s because the aptly named Western Mustangs, their opponent in a best-of-three quarter-final getting underway tonight, had all the horses in the season series.
Western won 5-1 on Nov. 17 at home and 2-1 Nov. 24 in St. Catharines.
Second-seeded Brock advanced to play No. 2 seed Western by sweeping the seventh-seeded York Lions in the opening round.
At Toronto, Justin Brack scored 15 seconds into the second overtime to give the Badgers a 3-2 victory and berth in the quarter-finals.
Brock trailed 2-0 after one period of play but got back into the Friday night’s game and forced overtime on two goals from Ethan Spaxman. “Unbelievable win!” head coach Marty Williamson said. “I’m very proud of these guys. They worked hard.”
Logan Thompson earned the win in net for
BERND FRANKE
the Badgers who outshot York 49-37.
Game 2 in the playoff versus Western is Friday night at London, Ont. Game 3, if necessary, is Sunday at Seymour-Hannah.
Third game in a row
A familiar foe will be at the other end of the court today when Brock opens the men’s basketball playoffs.
Lakehead provided the opposition when the Badgers closed out league play in Thunder Bay with a 94-74 loss Friday and a 73-72 victory.
Cassidy Ryan, with 20 points; Johneil Simpson, 13; Noah LaPierre, 11 off the bench; topped the Badgers in scoring in the loss. Ryan, 20; Kascius Small Martin, 19; Tyler Brown, Ryan, 12 apiece; set the pace on offence in the win.
Like Brock, the Thunderwolves are 7-3 over their last 10 games.
“We’re playing a team that’s really hot right now, and it’s never easy to play a team for a third time in a row,” Badgers head coach Madhav Trivedi said. “They play really well in transition, so we’ll look to slow them down and get them to play in the half court.
“Offensively, we’re going to get back to playing our tempo and our pace, so we have an opportunity to score a little bit more than we did in the past couple of days up there in Lakehead.”
Sixth-seeded Lakehead hasn’t won a game at Brock since 2014.
Back in playoffs
Brock is back in the women’s basketball playoffs after a one-year absence, and opening post-season play at home against Laurier.
Both the fourth-seeded Badgers, 11-13; and fifth-seeded Golden Hawks, 9-15; finished the regular season under .500 and split the season series against each other.
Brock lost the season opener 63-51 Oct. 26 at home rebounding with a 59-53 victory Jan. 9 in Waterloo.
Laurier presents a tough challenge to head coach Mike Rao’s Badgers.
“Laurier is a very physical team, they are well-coached and move the ball extremely well,” he said.
“They can shoot the three and go inside.”
Rao added the Golden Hawks will be difficult to defend.
“Defensively, Laurier pressures the ball and makes it extremely difficult for us to run our sets,” he said.
“I expect them to stretch the floor on us offensively and defensively.”
Brock closed out the season in Thunder Bay with back-to-back losses to Lakehead.
Melissa Tatti topped the Badgers with 15 points in a 90-53 setback Friday.
Tatti and Kristin Gallant netted 16 and 11, respectively, in a 98-65 loss the following day.