RECAP: #3 Ottawa downs Guelph and Algoma on the road
Calvin Epistola and the Gee-Gees power to road wins in Guelph and Sault Ste. Marie.
NOV. 15 AT GUELPH
Improving on a much closer result from a year prior, the Ottawa Gee-Gees men's basketball team defeated the Guelph Gryphons by a final tally of 88-70 on Friday night.
The Gryphons built a slim lead early, outscoring the Gee-Gees 21-20 in the first quarter. It was in the second quarter where Ottawa turned up the pressure, jumping out in the lead while holding Guelph to only 12 points in the quarter.
Charles-Antoine Gaba, Borys Minger, and Calvin Epistola paced the offence to a 44-33 first half lead with each scoring eight points at the break. In the second half, Epistola and Kevin Civil took over, leading the Gee-Gees to the win.
Epistola notched 20 points and seven assists to lead the team, while Civil had 13 and five rebounds. Rounding out players in double-figures was Gaba (11), Minger (11), and Sean Stoqua (10).
NOV. 17 AT ALGOMA
Following a travel day on Saturday, the Gee-Gees arrived in Sault Ste. Marie set for a meeting with the Algoma Thunderbirds. In a great back-and-forth game, the Gee-Gees powered to a 88-67 win to improve to 6-0 on the regular season.
Algoma was strong to start the game as the Gee-Gees took a quarter to get their legs. The Thunderbirds' hot start had Ottawa respond in the second quarter, finding rhythm on offence to win the quarter 26-16.
With a humble 44-35 lead at halftime, the Gee-Gees put the game away in the third quarter. Limiting the Thunderbirds to only 13 points, the Gee-Gees were extremely hot behind the scoring of Calvin Epsitola and Camille Musuakala.
Epistola set a new career-high with 32 points and an outstanding nine assists. Musuakala had a career game with 15 points on five three-pointers, his next highest scoring effort was three-points against Queen's the prior weekend.
In all, four players logged career highs in the game with Marlon Kordrostami posting 13 points and first-year Dragan Stajic also getting in on the action with eight points.
UP NEXT
The Gee-Gees return home for their second home weekend of the regular season. The team will host York (1-7) and U SPORTS eighth-ranked Lakehead (6-2) on Saturday.
Both games tip off at 8 p.m. at Montpetit Hall and will be streaming live on OUA.tv. The York game will be live broadcasted on Rogers TV in Ottawa. Tickets are available at tickets.geegees.ca.