KINGSTON, Ont. (November 21, 2015)- The Queen's Gaels men's basketball team recorded arguably its biggest victory of the regular season on Saturday evening at the Athletics and Recreation Centre (ARC) by defeating the CIS No. 4 ranked Brock Badgers in thrilling fashion, 87-81.
 
Sukhpreet Singh (Toronto) tallied a team-high 18 points, Tanner Graham (Kingston) and Patrick Street (Etobicoke, Ont.) added 17 and 16 respectively for the Gaels, who bounced back from a loss on Friday to improve their overall conference record to 4-1. The Badgers, who had their three-game winning streak to begin the regular season snapped, were led by Matt Marshall who picked up a game-high 26 points as well as 10 rebounds in the loss.
 
GAME FLOW
Unhappy with the compete level amongst his team over the first two quarters of the match, Head Coach Steph Barrie called an important timeout midway through the second period that served as the turning point of the match.
 
Leading up to the break, while both team's were shooting efficiently on offence (Brock shot 50%, while the Gaels worked at a 53.3% efficiency), it was the Badgers who dominated the glass over the opening two quarters, picking up 14 second-chance points off nine offensive rebounds. The Badgers outrebounded Queen's 21-12 overall in the first half, but the momentum had already begun to shift in favour of the home side, who went on an 8-2 run to bring the deficit down to single digits heading into the break.
 
Singh picked up four points to start the second half for Queen's, while the Badgers, who were so potent offensively in the first half, crawled out of the gate, turning the ball over three times within the opening minutes of the third. A corner three from Andrew Mavety (Vancouver) helped the Gaels stay within striking distance. The Badgers didn't help their own cause, as they committed eight turnovers in the third quarter alone.  
 
The momentum continued to swing in favour of the hosts with each take-away, and consecutive baskets from beyond the arc by Graham and Street evened the match late in the third. Sammy Ayisi polished off an intense quarter with an end-to-end run, finishing with a quick lay-up off the glass to send the teams into the fourth quarter tied at 60-60.
 
The hosts overtook the lead on a Graham jumper, and then Street drained a very deep three, sending the ARC crowd into a frenzy and giving Queen's its largest lead of the game at five. After the Gaels extended the lead to seven, the Brock offence suddenly came out of its slumber, as the Badgers tallied 10 points in a row, including a couple of three-pointers from Ryan Bennett and Marshall.
 
With the scored tied at 81-81 at the 1:03 mark, the Gaels made good on 3-of-4 free-throws by Singh and Mark Paclibar (Minesing, Ont.), and Bennett could not sink a three-pointer that would have tied the match. Tanner Graham came up big from the foul-line following the Badgers misses and ensuing fouls, adding three more points for the Gaels that put the game out of reach.
 
 
The Gaels shot a formidable 52.6% from the field, compared to 44.4% from the Badgers, and are now tied with the Ryerson Rams atop the OUA East division.
 
FINAL SAY
" (In the first half) we were getting outcompeted, especially on the offensive glass, so we just got the message through that if they want to be a team that contends at the highest level, those things can't happen," said Barrie. "We responded, came out in the second half and played much better. What really turned it around for us was getting consecutive stops on defence. Once we were able to string some stops together, we were then able to go on some runs and slow them down. It's a great win, but we're not going to spend too much time on it. We have two more games before the break next weekend and we have to finish strong."
 
BY THE NUMBERS
26- The number of points the Gaels scored off of Brock turnovers
32- Bench points by Queen's, compared to nine from the Badgers
14- Brock's largest lead of the match at 2:23 of the second quarter
11/16/2012 - The last time the Gaels defeated a CIS Top 10 ranked team, they took down a No.7 Lakehead team 96-87
 
UP NEXT
The men travel to Laurier and Waterloo next Friday and Saturday for their final regular season games of the fall schedule before the holiday break.