The Guelph Gryphons ended their eight-game losing streak by shocking the Laurier Golden Hawks 61-58 and advance to 2012 OUA West CIS Men’s basketball semi-finals against the #2 McMaster Marauders.
The Golden Hawks trailed 59-55 with 54 seconds remaining and managed to cut the lead to one when fourth-year wing Sharif Wanas picked up a loose rebound and stuck it in with the hoop and the foul.
The next possession, Guelph’s Kareem Malcom put up a bad shot but Laurier failed to capitalize as back-up point guard Travis Berry turned the ball over with 8 seconds remaining, forcing the disappointed Golden Hawks to foul Gryphons Dan McCarthy who drilled the two clutch foul shots to seal victory.
Guelph trailed 35-25 at half and fought hard to trim the margin to only three points at 47-44 after three-quarters of play.
The Gryphons then tightened the screws defensively by holding the high scoring Golden Hawks to just eleven fourth-quarter points to pull the shocking upset.
Third-year Guard Drew Norris led all scores with a game-high 20 points, drilling four of Guelph’s six three-pointers. Kareem Malcom was good for 15 points and seven rebounds.
Laurier got a double-double from Conor Meschino with 16 points and eleven rebounds. Kale Harrison concluded his CIS Men’s Basketball career with a disappointing 15 points on 7-of-24 shots.
The Golden Hawks played without second leading scorer Max Allin who sat out the contest with fluid like symptoms.
Both teams struggled to find the basket with Guelph shooting a mediocre 20-for-67 (30%)and 6-of-18 from downtown. Laurier was equally poor going 24-of-67 (36%) and put forth their poorest outing of the season from beyond the arc, with only 2-of-12 (17%) shooting.
