Brock men come back to defeat national champions in hoops
The Brock Badgers were either in the key or close enough to it when opportunity knocked when they tipped off the men’s basketball playoffs against the defending U Sports champion Carleton Ravens Wednesday night in Ottawa.
And because they made the most of those opportunities, the 10thseeded Badgers defeated No. 7 Carleton, 70-69, and will be back in the nation’s capital playing the No. 2 seed Ottawa Gee-Gees in the quarterfinal round on Saturday.
Jevon Brown, with 22 points, eight rebounds, three steals, two blocks; Jordan Tchuente, 18 points, nine rebounds, three steals; and Isaiah Bujdoso, 10 points, three rebounds, three assists; led the Badgers in scoring in the come-frombehind victory.
Brock, which trailed 55-46 after three quarters and lost to Carleton 69-63, during the regular season, outscored the Ravens 22-7 in points off turnovers and 10-7 in second-chance points in the rematch. The Badgers outrebounded their hosts 34-32.
The Badgers (11-11, regular season; 1-0, playoffs) also will be facing Ottawa (19-3, regular season) for the second time since the start of the 2023-24 season. On Nov. 18, a night after losing to Carleton, they fell, 73-63, to the Gee Gees, also in Ottawa.
After a first-round bye, Brock (17-5, regular season) opens the women’s basketball playoffs on Saturday at home against the Toronto Metropolitan Wild (16-6, regular season, 1-0) playoffs. Game time at Bob Davis Gymnasium is 2 p.m.
Last weekend, the Badgers closed out the regular season and clinched first place in the Central Division with an 82-66 victory over the visiting Nipissing Lakers from North Bay.
Madalyn Weinert, St. Catharines, Eden High School, led Brock with 26 points, 10 assists, six blocks and five rebounds. It was the third-year guard’s 10th double-double of the
season and she finished the regular season leading the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) conference in scoring averaging 22.5 points per game.
Oluwatito Akinnusi and Angeline Campbell added 14 and 10 points, respectively, for the Badgers.
Brock split the season series with Toronto Metropolitan, formerly Ryerson University. On Nov. 11, the Badgers lost, 71-48, on the road and prevailed, 78-56, when the action shifted to St. Catharines on Jan. 5.
Toronto Metropolitan advanced to the quarterfinals with a 66-54 defeat of the Western Mustangs (1111, regular season) in the qualifying round Wednesday night in Toronto.
Athletes of the week
Tatum O’Connor and Julien Legault were Brock University’s top
female and male athletes for the week ending Feb. 18, after swimming to top-eight finishes at the OUA championships.
O’Connor, a kinesiology major from Dundas, earned a bronze medal in the 50-metre butterfly and set a program record in a time of 27 seconds and 69 milliseconds.
She also set another school record with her fourth-place finish in the 100m backstroke in a time of 1:03.38. O’Connor’s medal is Brock’s first in swimming at provincials since 2017 when Rachel Nogard settled for silver in the 200m butterfly and Jessie MacLean earned a bronze in the 50m freestyle.
Legault, Brock’s top male athlete, placed fifth in the 100m backstroke (57.26) and seventh in the 50m backstroke (26.39). He also helped anchor relay team that included Evan Karlov, Blake Bishop and Christopher Ball to a fourth-place finish in the men’s 4x100 freestyle in a time of 3:26.24 for a new school record.
Hockey
First-place Brock (21-7, regular) opened the men’s university hockey semifinals on the road Thursday night against the fourth-seeded Windsor Lancers (15-11-1-1, regular season; 2-0, playoffs).
The Badgers, who had a firstround bye, split the season series with the Lancers, who swept the fifth-seeded Lakehead Thunderwolves in a best-of-three quarterfinal.
On Nov. 3, Brock tripled Windsor, 3-1, at Canada Games Park in Thorold and lost the rematch, 4-1, on Jan. 27 on the road.
Brock has home-ice advantage in the second-round series, also a best-of-three. Game 2 is Saturday, beginning at 4 p.m., with a third game, if needed, at 4 the following afternoon.