KINGSTON, Ont. (February 18, 2020) - The opening round of the OUA playoffs in men's basketball is set to begin this Wednesday night and the Queen's Gaels will host the Laurier Golden Hawks in an opening-round playoff with a spot in the quarter-final on the line. Tickets are available at gogaelsgo.com/tickets and Queen's Students along with Jr. Gaels are FREE. The game will also be streamed live on OUA.tv.
The Gaels finished the season with a 14-8 record, fourth-best in the East division while Laurier was 11-11 and second in the West. Queen's is the
HOSTING AT HOME
The Gaels last hosted a home playoff game on March 2, 2016, when they defeated the Toronto Varsity Blues 87-70.
SEASON SERIES
Queen's and Laurier met just once this season with the Gaels taking an 89-87 overtime win at the Queen's ARC back on February 1.
The two sides were close throughout the contest but late-game heroics from
Harry Range, who netted a career-high 28 points, led the Gaels to the win. Both
Luka Syllas and
Quinton Gray also posted double-doubles in the victory for Queen's.
LAST PLAYOFF MEETING
Queen's and Laurier have never met in the OUA playoffs before and Wednesday night will mark the first meeting in postseason play between the schools in men's basketball.
STAT LEADERS
This season the Gaels were paced offensively from a group that included five players who averaged eight or more points per game.
At the top was
Quinton Gray, who scored 18.3 per contest.
Harry Range followed at 14.3 and rookie
Cole Syllas finished his freshman campaign averaging 12.4.
On the boards, rookie Syllas led the way with 7.6 per game while he, his brother Luka and Gray all averaged over a steal per game.
For the Golden Hawks, they are led by Ali Sow whose 23.7 points per game was second-best in the OUA this season. Kemel Archer had the fifth-best rebounds per game mark in the OUA averaging 10 per contest along with his 12 points per game.
SCHEDULE
Playoff Round: Wednesday, Feb. 19 | Laurier at Queen's | 8:00 pm
Quarterfinal: Saturday, Feb. 22 | Winner Playoff Round at Lakehead | Time TBD
