Bittersweet night for Badgers
In the span of less than an hour Wednesday night, the Brock Badgers enjoyed both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
With trips to the USPORTS National Championships within reach for both teams, the Brock men’s hockey and basketball teams played Ontario University Athletics (OUA) playoff games, but only one came away with the outcome it wanted.
The Badgers men’s hockey team opened its best-of-three OUA West final against the York Lions with a 6-2 win in Toronto will have a chance to complete the sweep at home Friday.
“The team played hard and getting off to a good start was key,” head coach Marty Williamson said. “After that, Clint Windsor stood tall for us in goal.”
It was a big win for the underdog Badgers, who are trying to earn their first OUA championship berth, which comes with an automatic entry into the USPORTS national championships, in 10 years.
Cosimo Fontana, with two, and Adam Lloyd scored evenstrength goals, Sammy Banga and Jeff Corbett netted powerplay goals and Ayden MacDonald added an empty-netter to account for the Brock offence.
Anchoring the defence was Windsor, who made 38 saves.
Game 2 is in St. Catharines for a 7:15 p.m. puck drop Friday at Seymour-Hannah Sports and Entertainment Centre. Game 3, if necessary, is 7 p.m. Saturday in Toronto. Ticket information is available on the GoBadgers.ca website.
While the hockey team was celebrating in Toronto, the Brock men’s basketball team was forced to wonder what could have been after a heartbreaking 69-63 loss to the Ryerson Rams in the OUA semifinal.
A win would have earned the Badgers a trip to the OUA final against Carleton and a berth into the Canadian championships March 8-11 in Halifax.
Instead, Brock will host a bronze-medal game 7 p.m. Saturday while hoping a win there will be enough to earn a wild-card entry to nationals.
“It’s extremely frustrating, it was a game we knew we could win,” said senior Dani Elgadi, who led the Badgers with 20 points and eight rebounds.
“The crowd got us a little hyped and we were edgy in the first quarter. It just took us a while to settle in.”
Brock trailed Ryerson early in the game, but came back to tie it at 16-16 and led 21-20 after the first quarter. From there, a combination of foul trouble and a frustrating lack of shots dropping allowed the Rams to take a 34-23 lead by the six–minute mark of the second and a 39-35 lead at the half.
An even third quarter didn’t change the margin, and then more shooting struggles — both from the floor and at the foul line — continued to hurt the Badgers in the final quarter.
A 3-pointer at the buzzer from Ibrahim Ngom closed the gap slightly, but it would have to have been a 9-pointer for it to have made a difference.
Tyler Brown had nine points and Johneil Simpson had eight for the Badgers. Ammanuel Diressa led Ryerson with 19 points.
Brock head coach Charles Kissi acknowledged the team’s shooting percentage — 28.1 per cent for field goals, 22.2 for 3pointers, 69.7 for free throws — simply wasn’t good enough.
“We didn’t shoot the ball very well today,” he said. “We don’t have any excuse for missing open
shots. “At this level, if you want to win a national title, you have to hit those.”
Kissi said the team will do its best to forget about Wednesday’s loss and refocus on playing Windsor in the OUA bronze-medal game Saturday at Bob Davis Gymnasium. “The good news is we’ve given ourselves another chance to get there,” he said. “We’re going to have to be really good on Saturday.”
Elgadi said getting excited and mentally prepared for the bronze game won’t be a problem.
“We’re not done yet,” he said. “We have a mission. We’ve always wanted to go to nationals.”
“So if we get that opportunity with the wild card, we’ll take advantage of it.”
Brock split the season series with Windsor winning 83-54 at home Jan. 20 and losing 93-83 on the road to close out league play Feb. 17.