Gaels bounced in playoffs

Basketball teams can’t advance past early rounds

Image by: Jack Rabb

Men’s basketball team eliminated in first round by Laurier

The men’s basketball team’s playoffs came to a quick halt as they fell to the Laurier Golden Hawks in their first and only postseason game. 

Queen’s came into the game with a regular season record of 14-8 compared to Laurier’s 11-11. However, despite the discrepancy in their records, these teams always play each other tight—Laurier and Queen’s have split their last 10 games against each other, and in their most recent regular season matchup, the Gaels eked out a 89-87 win.

Laurier grabbed the first points of the game, scored off of a slam dunk by Hawks’ Jackson Mayers, but Queen’s made some lineup changes and eventually pushed past Laurier, getting ahead by a score of 23-16.

Cole Syllas lead the way in the second quarter with 10 points as Queen’s held the lead for the majority of the second quarter, and the Gaels went into halftime up 47-42.

The third quarter was a tight battle. Each team played well defensively, but the quarter ended with Laurier in the lead 59-55.

In the fourth, Cole Syllas, Landon Brickenden, and Luka Syllas all hit jumpers to get Queen’s on top, 62-61.

However, after Hawks’ Adnan Begovic’s three-pointer put them up 66-64 halfway into the quarter, Queen’s never managed to regain the lead.

The Hawks won the game 91-81 and moved on to defeat the Lakehead Thunderwolves in the next round. They eventually fell to the Western Mustangs in an epic overtime battle, 104-103.

Ultimately, the Gaels failed to capitalize on turnovers—Queen’s only had four more turnovers than Laurier, but the Hawks scored 23 points off of turnovers while the Gaels only scored five points.

The collective effort of Laurier’s bench was also a key factor in their win—their ­bench got them 40 points over the course of the game, while Queen’s bench only scored 18.

Daniel Green

 

The women’s basketball team was eliminated from playoff contention after a bitter loss to a powerful Ryerson team.

The Gaels got a tough draw in this year’s playoffs, facing off against the nationally-ranked second Rams in the quarterfinals after easing past Laurier in the first round.

Laurier was more competitive in the playoffs than they were in the regular season, when the Gaels shellacked them 80-44. In the first quarter, the Gaels and the Hawks went bucket for bucket, and the frame ended 17-16 for Queen’s.

Queen’s figured out Laurier in the second—they outscored them 18-5 and never looked back. They outscored Laurier in the second half as well, and went on to win 78-50.

Laura Donovan and Sophie de Goede both put up 16 points in the win, and the Gaels led in every major statistical category, except the Hawks had one more block than them.

Against the Rams on Feb. 22, Queen’s had an uncharacteristically bad shooting night, going 28 per cent from the field and 22.6 per cent from three. 

Ryerson jumped out to a quick lead, and stayed ahead by double digits for much for the first quarter. 

The wheels fell off in the second quarter—the offence sputtered, and Ryerson outscored Queen’s 18-4. The beauty of the Gaels’ offence was that it had so many options, but on this night none of them were connecting.

Even though Queen’s won the third quarter, they still went into the fourth down by 16 points, 55-39. The women didn’t get any closer than 11 points back of the Rams in the fourth.

Queen’s is only graduating two players this year, so anticipate a deeper playoff run next year.

Jack Rabb

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