The OUA East CIS/U Sports Men’s Basketball “Road to the Final 8” starts tonight with two Quarter-Final games. Below is a closer look at two games featuring the #6 York Lions visit to the nations capital to take on the #3 Ottawa Gee-Gees.
#6 York Lions – (OUA 5-17, Overall 7-24)
#3 Ottawa Gee-Gees – (OUA 13-9, Overall 22-17)
2011-12 Head-to-Head Ottawa Gee-Gees 2-0, W 92-61, W 92-71 @ York
How They Stack-Up
It’s been a tough 2011-12 OUA Men’s Basketball year for Toronto’s York Lions. A lack of depth and inexperience crippled the Lions to an 0-11 start. Four out of their five conference victories have come against the two basement teams in RMC and Queens. The only other win came against the Toronto Varsity Blues. York comes in riding a two-game winning streak. The Gee-Gees under the direction of former player and third-year Head Coach James Derouin have played .500% for over a month now and are feeling the effects of losing their prized superstar Warren Ward, to a season ending MCL tear.
BasketballBuzz CIS/U Sports Top 25 Weekly Power Rankings
York Lions
NR, NR, NR, NR, NR, NR, NR, NR, NR, NR, NR, NR
Ottawa Gee-Gees
12, 12, 19, 14, 13, 13 , 10, 9, 11, 17, 14, 18, 18, 18
Signature victories
York Lions
Toronto Blues
Ottawa Gee-Gees
Acadia Axemen, Windsor Lancers, McMaster Maradeurs x 2, Laurier Golden Hawks, St. Mary’s Huskies
Keys To Victory
York Lions: The Lions will have to limit turnovers against a scrappy team that likes to put full court pressure on the ball. Rebounding will have to be a central focus as well, they were crushed on the glass 76-63 in their two meetings.
Ottawa Gee-Gees: Free-throw shooting is definitely an area of concern for a team that has struggled to close out games. Ottawa’s 60% ranks at the bottom of the nation and good hurt them down the stretch.
Who’s Buzzing
York Lions – Fourth-year Point guard David Tyndale will need to come-up big if the Lions are going to pull the upset. He’s coming off a 38-point game against Queens and will the central focus of the Gee-Gees defensive schemes.
Ottawa Gee-Gees – Sophomore Guard Johnny Berhanemeskel has picked-up the slack in the scoring department and leads the Gee-Gees with 17.2 points per game and is a Top 10 three-point shooter with an accurate 44.9 clip.
