Top-ranked Badgers survive scare

Brock’s first game ever as the top-ranked women’s basketball team in Canada Wednesday was anything but enjoyable for Badgers head coach Mike Rao.

“It was ugly basketball tonight,” he said, after a 55-44 victory over the visiting Waterloo Warriors. “I don’t think we played together well offensively. We were out of sorts, we kept firing from the three-point line, nothing was going down and we didn’t figure out a way to get to the basket.

“We weren’t willing to share the ball tonight and it is something that I haven’t seen here in a while. Maybe everybody thinks we are a lot better than we are.”

He had no answer for why his team played like it did Wednesday.

“Hopefully we can figure it out tomorrow or the next day because we have to go back there (Saturday).”

Brock was 2-for-19 from outside the arc in the first half and missed several easy shots and layups in both halves of the game.

“We shot the ball horrible underneath, mid-range and from three but my biggest concern is that we settled a lot,” Rao said. “It wasn’t a good game for us at all but defensively we held them to 40 points so we did a good job there.”

Any joy Rao felt after being named the top-ranked team in the country Tuesday has worn off by the end of the game Wednesday.

“I don’t feel that way right now. To me it is just a number and I think it is more important to other people than me,” he said. “The program has gotten to where it is mainly because players have boughten in and tonight we didn’t buy in. That is more disturbing and I am not thinking about being in the No. 1 spot in the country.”

One player who has bought in from the beginning had been fifth-year senior Sam Keltos. The 6-foot-3 forward from St. Catharines had another strong game Wednesday night with 21 points and 10 boards.

“Sam defended well and she boarded well but I don’t know what it is,” Rao said. “Maybe it was the ranking that was pushing everyone to try and do more. Once you try and push yourself a little more and try to get fancy, that is when it falls apart. You have to let the game come to you, you have to share the ball and let the ball get to where it needs to get to.”

Keltos wasn’t thinking about the squad’s lofty status when the Badgers took the floor.

“That’s not where my head was at,” the biology major said. “I was treating this just like any other game and that is what you have to do. You never know what is going to happen. Our shots unfortunately weren’t dropping, including myself, none of us were shooting well and none of us were making the easy shots like we always do.”

But great teams find a way to win ugly and that’s what the Badgers did versus Waterloo.

“Coach was reaming us out in there (dressing room) and obviously we can do better but we still won by 11,” she said. “That says something. We normally hold teams to 53 points and we had 55 points. That says that we weren’t doing the job on offence but we did on the defensive end of it.”

Keltos is excited to be on a team that is No. 1 in Canada.

“I came to Brock from playing zero minutes in New York (NCAA Division 1 St. Francis Brooklyn) and becoming part of the family and part of the starting five,” she said. “I earned my way there and we have been building slowly for the past three years. I am ready to keep on building and keep on moving forward.”

There were a number of factors that brought Brock to the top of the rankings.

“It was buying into what he (Rao) was saying, buying into the team system and trusting each other,” Keltos said. “Trust is huge for me personally. We have had to build that through the years and we are still building it.”

STATS PACK

Badgers 55 Warriors 44

BPSN Player of the Game: Brock’s Sam Keltos with 21 points, 10 rebounds, four steals and two blocked shots.

For the Brock Badgers: Keltos 21; Victoria Lawrence 10; Jenneke Pilling 8; Madalyn Weinert 7.

For the Waterloo Warriors: Vanessa Hughes 15; Beth Howlett 9.

Game stats: Shooting percentage: Brock 31, Waterloo 21. Free throws: Brock 6-7, Waterloo 11-19. Rebounds: Brock 30, Waterloo 47. Turnovers: Brock 10, Waterloo 17.

Up next: Brock (11-0) is at Waterloo (5-4) Saturday at 4 p.m.

BADGERS 87 WARRIORS 72

The fourth-ranked Brock Badgers men’s basketball team improved to 10-1 on the season with an 87-72 victory over the visiting Waterloo Warriors Wednesday.

Brock built quarter leads of 18-12, 35-29 and 60-54 to record the win.

Leading the way for Brock were: Jesse Barnes, 18 points and eight rebounds; Tajinder Lall, 15 points and eight boards; Jordan Tchuente, 15 points and six rebounds; and, Kascius Small-Martin, 13 points and seven rebounds.

Justin Malnerich (23) and Kuel Thomas (19) led the scoring for Waterloo.

Brock is at Waterloo Saturday at 6 p.m.