Gryphon men hold on to down McMaster

HAMILTON – The Guelph Gryphons built a 15-point lead with just less than four minutes to play and then held on to down the McMaster Marauders 90-84 in OUA men’s basketball play Wednesday at McMaster’s Burridge Gymnasium.

While the Gryphs were only outscored by two points in the final quarter, most of their points came in the first six minutes while most of McMaster’s came in the final four as they cut an 81-66 deficit into the final six-point margin. The Gryphs did score the final two points of the match on a pair of free throws with 14 seconds to go.

Guelph led 22-15 at the end of the first quarter, 41-36 at halftime and 66-58 at the end of the third quarter.

Emmanuel Ansah and Viktoras Nausedas had 21 points apiece for the Gryphs while Shaathon Walker and Carl Veltmann had 15 apiece and Dezayne Mingo netted 12. Ansah also had eight rebounds while Mingo had six assists and Nausedas had seven rebounds and two steals.

Mike Demagus collected 24 points and had three blocks and two steals for McMaster while Nathan Charles had 17 points and 12 rebounds and AY Osunde had 16 points. Tyler Garcia had three assists and Daniel Graham had three steals.

The Gryphs shot 55 percent on field goals, 50 percent on three-pointers, 67 percent on free throws and had 34 rebounds, 17 assists, 16 turnovers, 11 points off McMaster turnovers, six second-chance points, 34 points in the paint and 21 points from their bench.

McMaster shot 43 percent on field goals, 30 percent on three-pointers, 80 percent on free throws and had 33 rebounds, 11 assists, nine turnovers, 15 points off Gryphon turnovers, 13 second-chance points, 42 points in the paint and 18 points from their bench.

The Gryphs improve to 4-10 in league play with the win and they’re to battle the Toronto Metropolitan Bold Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre.

• Guelph Sports Journal