Brock men win chippy affair
The Brock and Guelph men’s basketball teams put a new twist on an old and hackneyed sports cliche.
Instead of going to a hockey game and watching a boxing match break out, fans of Ontario University Athletics hoops got to see a hockey game break out at the end of a basketball game.
A total of 46 fouls were called in the chippy game and once Brock had put the finishing touches on a 93-80 victory, an altercation occurred during the end of game handshakes. A pushing match ebbed and flowed across the floor, players jawed with each other and some of the more enthusiastic combatants had to be restrained by their teammates and coaches.
It was ugly end to a game that had plenty of nastiness and the handshake line brouhaha seemed to have been ignited by Brock’s Cassidy Ryan draining a three-point shot as time expired.
Brock head coach Charles Kissi had no problem with Ryan taking the shot.
“It is simple and I say this openly,” he said. “We have a rule and if you watch our games, if we’re up, I will say ‘Eat it.’ That’s my term. And that means keep the ball and let the time expire.”
On this night, Kissi yelled his usual two words.
“I told him to eat it but he was being double-teamed so guess what? We are going to score,” he said. “If you don’t want to stop playing, then we are going to keep playing too.
“It’s not about disrespecting anybody but we are not going to lay down because you feel like you have something to work on. That is not our problem.”
He felt all his team did was keep playing.
“It is not about them (Guelph),” Kissi said. “If they are not going to surrender, then we are not going to surrender either.”
He agreed the optics of a shoving match during handshakes isn’t the greatest.
“But what are you going to do about it? They were upset about it and they were pushing our guys around. Tell us what you want us to do? Are you supposed to stand there and get thrown to the ground?
“No one was punching anyone. They were trying to separate and protect their team.”
Kissi was also upset that his team had more fouls called against it than Guelph and has led the league in fouls for the fourth straight year.
“That’s not a criticism of anyone, that’s just a fact,” he said.
He didn’t want to comment on whether that is deserved.
“I watch a lot of game film and if you watch me coach, I am the hardest on guys who are doing things they shouldn’t be doing.
“It’s not my decision to make whether it is deserved or not.”
Brock improved to 15-2 with the victory but Kissi is far from satisfied.
“In the second half of the game, we weren’t fantastic and I thought it was a really, really chippy game and I didn’t understand the flow or pace of the game and I can only imagine how our players struggled with that as well.”
Brock’s Dani Elgadi left the game in the second half with a leg injury but Kissi said he is OK.
“He could have come back in and played but the way the game was going and the unpredictable pace, it wasn’t worth the risk,” he said. “At the end of the day, we are happy to come out with all our players healthy.”
STATS PACK
Badgers 93 Gryphons 80
BPSN Star of the Game: Brock’s Tyler Brown with 19 points and seven assists.
For the Brock Badgers: Brown 19; Dani Elgadi 16; Cassidy Ryan 14; Noak Lapierre 10.
For the Guelph Gryphons: Banky Alade 18; Taylor Boers 14; Tommy Yanchus 13.
Game stats: Field goal percentage: Brock 47.8, Guelph 36.8. Free throws: Brock 20-21, Guelph 24-34. Rebounds: Brock 46, Guelph 37. Turnovers: Brock 20, Guelph 16. Scoring by quarters: Brock 22-14-29-28=93, Guelph 16-11-26-27=80.
Up next: Brock hosts Waterloo Saturday at 8 p.m. at The Bob.
