On Nov. 18, the Brock Badgers men’s basketball team closed out their three-game homestand against the Waterloo Warriors.
The Warriors were winless heading into the game, while Brock was on a winning streak.
The Badgers played well from the hop, going 10-1 to start the game. Jesse Barnes had an impressive play in the paint, grabbing the offensive rebound and putting it back up, nabbing the bucket and the free throw at the line, which he drained.
Brock’s defence didn’t allow a field goal until the 6:38 mark of the quarter as Waterloo struggled mightily on the offensive side of the floor.
A 7-0 run by the Badgers over the next three minutes would increase the lead to double digits for the first time in the game. Brock’s dominance would continue throughout the rest of the quarter as they outscored Waterloo 27-12, but only shooting 34.78 per cent from the field.
Brock would turn the shooting percentage around in the second quarter shooting 50 per cent. The Badgers had multiple contributors in the second quarter with eight of their buckets coming from five different players.
The game was over at the half as the Badgers were up 50-20 as Waterloo had shot just seven of 30 through 20 minutes. Brock continued to dominate in the third quarter, outscoring Waterloo 23-13 and leading by 42 points at the 5:22 mark of the quarter.
Waterloo managed to outscore Brock 20-14 in the fourth quarter but the game was well out of reach as Brock won 87-53. The Badgers would nab their third win of the season, improving to 3-1 and keepng the Warriors winless at 0-4.
11 of Brock’s 13 players contributed as head coach Willy Manigat flexed his depth playing no player for less than 12 minutes.
Michael Matas scored 15 points shooting six for ten from the field and three for three from the line. He also managed five rebounds in two steals in what was his best performance of the season thus far.
Jesse Barnes shot a whopping 80 per cent from the field in addition to his five rebounds, one assist and one block. Barnes also added three points at charity stripe.
Barnes and the rest of the Badgers squad carried their momentum into the Nov. 19 matchup against the McMaster Marauders, winning 75-67. The team was led by the efforts of Isiah Bujdoso who notched his first double-double of the season with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
The Brock Badgers now sit number fourth in Canada University rankings and look to continue their success in their sixth game of the season on Nov. 25 against York University in Toronto.
All games can be streamed on OUAtv and Brock’s next home game is Dec. 2 against the Carlton Ravens. Tickets for that matchup can be bought here. For the rest of the seasons schedule and information on the team head to gobadgers.ca
