Gryphon men rally, but fall short against TMU Bold
GUELPH – The Guelph Gryphons cut an eight-point deficit with just over three minutes to play into a single-point deficit with less than a minute to go, but they couldn’t get any closer as they suffered an 80-76 loss to the Toronto Metropolitan Bold in OUA men’s basketball play Saturday at the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre.
TMU’s only points in the final three minutes were a trio of free throws while the Gryphs sank 3-of-10 field-goal attempts during that time.
The Gryphs led 23-20 at the end of the first quarter and 41-38 at halftime, but trailed 60-57 after the third quarter.
Dezayne Mingo scored a game-high 29 points for the Gryphs while Emmanuel Ansah had 21 and Viktoras Nausedas had 17. The remainder of the squad accounted for nine points shooting 3-of-16 on field-goal attempts.
Ansah had 10 rebounds, four assists, two blocks and three steals while Mingo had six rebounds and four steals and Shaathon Walker had five rebounds.
Aaron Rhooms had 22 points and two steals for TMU while Gabriel Gutsmore had 17 points and Julian Walker had 10. Guelphite Lincoln Rosebush had six rebounds and three blocks while Rhooms and Gutsmore both had three assists.
The Gryphs shot 39 percent on field goals, 11 percent (4 of 35) on three-pointers, 100 percent (14 of 14) on free throws and had 36 rebounds, seven assists, 17 turnovers, 19 points off TMU turnovers, nine second-chance points, 30 points in the paint and five points from their bench.
The Bold shot 48 percent on field goals, 39 percent on three-pointers, 59 percent on free throws and had 33 rebounds, 13 assists, 19 turnovers, 23 points off Gryphon turnovers, eight second-chance points, 26 points in the paint and 30 points from their bench.
The result leaves TMU at 9-6 and the Gryphs at 5-11.
Top 12 in the entire league qualify for the playoffs and, with a .313 winning percentage, the Gryphs are 14th. Waterloo Warriors (6-8) are 13th at .429 and Lakehead Thunderwolves (7-9) are 12th at .438.
The Gryphs have six games to play with five of them being road games. The Gryphs are 3-7 at home and 2-4 on the road in league play.
The remaining schedule for the Gryphs is to see them play the Western Mustangs (11-4) at London Jan. 31, Windsor Lancers (3-11) at Windsor Feb. 4, York Lions (6-9) at Toronto Feb. 7, Western at the GGAC Feb. 10, Nipissing Lakers (3-12) at North Bay Feb. 16 and the Laurentian Voyageurs (2-13) at Sudbury Feb. 17.
- Guelph Sports Journal