The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's basketball team travels to Waterloo, Ont., for a must-win OUA playoff battle with the Laurier Golden Hawks this Wednesday, February 22 at 7 p.m.

THE STAKES: The winner of Wednesday's contest will advance to the OUA quarter-finals and will head to Ottawa to take on the top-seeded Carleton Ravens on Saturday, February 25.

"Our team is very excited to be competing in the playoffs," said Varsity Blues head coach Madhav Trevidi. "We are on the road against a tough, well-coached Laurier team. We want to fight for the full 40 minutes."

A HEAD-TO-HEAD LOOK: Making their first post-season appearance since 2017-18, the Blues finished the regular season with a 13-9 record, in fourth place in the OUA Central division and ninth overall. The Golden Hawks finished with a 14-8 record in second place in the OUA West, eighth overall.

The Blues defeated the Hawks in their lone meeting of the regular season, 67-59, on Nov. 12 at Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport. Wednesday's contest will mark the first time the two teams have met in the postseason in program history.

Fourth-year guard Callum Baker led the Blues this season, ranking second in the OUA with 21.8 points per game through 17 contests. The NCAA transfer from Oakville, Ont., has proven to be a threat from the charity stripe, ranking third in the OUA with a 86.5 free-throw percentage.

Inaki Alvarez, a third-year guard from Altafulla, Spain, has had another great season in the Blue and White. The kinesiology major ranks second on the team with 15.6 points per contest, while also leading U of T with 109 assists this season – ranking him second on U of T's all-time single season record list.

Third-year forward Anthony Daudu has been a monster in the paint and has averaged almost a double-double of 9.6 points and 10.1 boards per contest. He broke the U of T single-season rebounding record with 202 this year.

Rookie standout Noah Ngamba sat third on the Blues, averaging 11.1 points per game this season.

Taye Donald and Ethan Passley have led the Golden Hawks this season, averaging 15.1 and 16.7 points per game, respectively.