By: Kourtney Meldrum
The Ryerson men’s and women’s basketball teams won back-to-back home games over the weekend.
The women’s game against the Waterloo Warriors Friday night marked their fourth win in a row. The game at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC) ended with a blowout score of 79-34 for the Rams. This placed the team third in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) east division standings behind Carleton University and Queen’s University.
The men’s team didn’t dominate as much in their evening game against the Warriors.
Heading into this game the team held a 4-2 record and ranked fifth in the OUA East division while the Warriors had a 2-5 record.
Both teams were coming off a two-game winning streak, but the Rams came out of the gate strong with centre Tanor Ngom making the first basket. The recent international recruit from Senegal played an integral offensive role putting up 16 points.
The game was touch and go with the Rams always in the lead and the Warriors fighting to catch up.
Ryerson found their rhythm in the third quarter, with a couple big dunks and blocked shots.
The fourth quarter was a completely different story. The Rams lost their groove, and the Warriors found it in them to make the comeback, giving the Rams some trouble down low.
“I don’t think it’s as much what they were doing but what we weren’t doing. We have to do a better job getting on defence, running systems,” Ngom said.
With just over three minutes left, the Rams were up by two, and with 1:25 left on the clock the Warriors tied it up and took it to overtime.
Overtime was a tense back and forth after Waterloo got the first basket, but as the clock ran out Ryerson guard Myles Charvis sunk a three that put the team back in the lead.
The Rams got the baskets needed to give them a 88-83 win.
This isn’t the first time the team went into overtime this season.
“It’s composure, it’s focus, we have some experience in those tight games. We just stay with what we do,” said Rams assistant coach, Borko Popic.
“It was a sloppy win. I think we were happy and we got comfortable. I think we’ve got to be consistent in terms of how we play,” said guard Jean-Victor Mukama, who shot from the behind the arc in overtime to bring the Rams up 85-81.
The Rams played Friday night’s game under coaching assistant Borko Popic, as head coach Roy Rana is currently in Halifax coaching the national team.
The next day, Ryerson was back on the Coca-Cola court at the MAC. Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams faced off on Saturday night against the Laurier Golden Hawks.
“Recovery and rest is important, our guys need to take care of their bodies. Then we’re going to work on adjustments we need to make and game prep tomorrow,” Popic said.
Both teams brought home a win against Laurier. The women ending the game at 79-52, and the men at 80-70.
Going into the week the men sit fourth in the OUA East division, and the women still sit at third, coming off of five consecutive wins.
Both teams will face University of Toronto Varsity Blues on Nov. 29 at the Goldring Centre. Women’s tip-off is at 6 p.m. and men’s at 8 p.m.
This is a joint byline.
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