Fourth-year forward Nick Snow dropped 19 points and hauled in 14 rebounds to lead the Varsity Blues to a five-point victory, 67-62, over the Laurentian Voyageurs on Saturday, February 14 at the Ben Avery gym.
With two wins this weekend and a Ryerson Rams loss, the Blues have clinched third place in the OUA East division and will host the sixth-seeded team on Wednesday, February 25th. Game time is TBD.
Toronto jumped out to the slightest of leads and found themselves up by two (15-13) after the first quarter of play. The Voyageurs, for their part, kept things close and managed to outscore the Blues 19-15 in the second to take a two-point lead of their own at the end of half.
Led by Snow (London, Ont.) and the guard play of Anthony DeGiorgio (Toronto), who tallied eight points and dished out four assists; the Blues kept the host Voyageurs at bay the rest of the evening, outscoring them in each of the final two quarters to secure the win.
In a game in which the Blues did not get to the free-throw line once, they managed to shoot 41.4% from the floor – 51.5% in the second half to help their cause.
Nick Snow led all players with 19 points on 9-of-15 shooting, and 14 rebounds. DeGiorgio’s eight points and four assists provided support, while Ahmed Nazmi (Cairo, EGY) added nine points, shooting 66% from the floor, and six rebounds.
Laurentian’s Mitch Mallette (Sudbury, Ont.) and Paul Kovacs (Barrie, Ont.) score 16 points apiece and Mark Ramalho (Brampton, Ont.) added eight. Alex Whiteman (North Vancouver, B.C.) brought down a team-high 10 rebounds in the loss.
On Friday night, the men’s basketball team upended their cross-town rivals, the York Lions, 86-79 at the Tait Mackenzie centre.
At the end of the first quarter of action, the two sides were deadlocked at 14-14. The second quarter was also evenly matched but York managed to pull ahead and was up by a three-point margin going into the third quarter.
The game played out in similar fashion early in the second half as neither team was able to build a sizeable lead.
Toronto would, however, seize the moment late in the contest, taking control with the game on the line by hitting timely threes and getting inside when they needed to. In the end, Toronto held on for the seven-point win.
Rob Paris (St. Catharines, Ont.) led the Blues in scoring with 19 points. The Blues also got 18 points and nine rebounds from Patrick Sewell (London, Ont.). As a team, the Blues shot 48.5% from the floor.
York lost despite an outstanding effort from their fifth-year senior and all-star Tut Ruach (Mississauga, Ont.), who put in a game-high 33 points. Rookie David Tyndale (Mississauga, Ont.) also chipped in with 17 points and Stefan Haynes (North York, Ont.) netted 13 of his own.
