Gryphon men ahead early, but collapse in loss to Western
GUELPH – The Guelph Gryphons closed out the home portion of their OUA men’s basketball season Saturday with a 93-79 loss to the Western Mustangs in their Senior Night/Alumni Day Game at the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre.
The Gryphs lost despite a fast start as they led 15-2 after three and a half minutes. However, a pair of free throws drained by Dezayne Mingo two minutes later were Guelph’s only other points of the quarter as Western went on a 30-2 run that finished in the opening minute of the second quarter.
The Mustangs led 28-17 at the end of the first quarter, 53-44 at halftime and 79-62 at the end of the third quarter.
Viktoras Nausedas led the Gryphs with 24 points while Mingo had 18 and Vytas Nausedas added 11. Mingo also had 11 rebounds and 11 assists while Viktoras Nausedas had six rebounds, Emmanuel Ansah had six rebounds and four steals and Carl Veltmann and Eric Armstrong each had a block.
Western had five players hit double digits in scoring – Matteo Zagar with 20 points, Tyson Dunn with 18, Cole Cruz-Dumont with 13, Aryan Sharma with 11 and Noah Otshudi with 10. Zagar had six rebounds and a block while Dunn had four assists and three steals.
The Gryphs shot 46 percent on field goals, 31 percent on three-pointers and 55 percent (11 of 20) on free throws. They also grabbed 37 rebounds, had 16 assists, two blocks and 12 steals, committed 18 turnovers, had 40 points in the paint, 17 points off Western turnovers, 12 second-chance points and received 22 points from their bench.
The Mustangs shot 52 percent on field goals, 78 percent on three-pointers and 74 percent on free throws and had 29 rebounds, 17 assists, one block, eight steals, 17 turnovers, 16 points off Gryphon turnovers, 52 points in the paint, four second-chance points and had their bench score 47 points.
Western moves into a tie for first place in the OUA West as they have identical 14-6 records. Waterloo Warriors are third at 8-12, the Gryphs fourth at 5-15, Windsor Lancers fifth at 4-16 and Algoma Thunderbirds sixth at 2-17.
The Gryphs are to complete their season next weekend with road games against the bottom two teams in the East Division as they’re to play the Nipissing Lakers (4-16) in North Bay Friday at 8 p.m. and the Laurentian Voyageurs (2-18) in Sudbury Saturday at 6 p.m.
- Guelph Sports Journal