Mounties earn split in Halifax
The Mount Allison Mens Basketball team was once again on the road in ACAA league play coming out with a weekend split in Halifax defeating the University of Kings College Blue Devils Sunday 89-76 to improve their record to 2-3. The Kings win was much needed after the garnet and gold suffered a 77-68 loss to the hometown Mount Saint Vincent Mystics the night before.
At Kings, the Mounties never trailed from the opening tip jumping out quickly to leads of 8-0, 11-2, 17-4 and eventually a half time lead of 45-36. While the Mounties did not have a particularly good FG% for the game at 37%, it was the Mounties rebounding edge (51 to 37), 12 steals, and an impressive 3pt shooting display going 11-19 from 3pt land that proved to be the difference for the Mounties m, who had previously defeated the same Kings team a week ago 81-77. Second year guard Jonas Munroe of Moncton was impressive leading the Mounties with 26 points and 5 rebounds while ACAA leading scorer Noah McCarthy dropped in 25 points, had 7 rebounds, 3 steals and dished out 4 assists. 6'10 second year forward Tim Ellison completed a double double scoring 11 points and collecting 13 rebounds while 6'6 forward Rashawn Ferguson took advantage of his first start of the season scoring 9 points and a game high 14 rebounds. Veteran guard Minwoo Park led all players with 8 assists. For Kings, Geevon Janday scored 17 point on 8 of 10 shooting from the floor while Caleb Renee and Alp Ozgoren each added 12.
The Mounties game at Mount Saint Vincent was a game of spurts for the garnet and gold. After falling behind 13-4 in the games early minutes, it was playing catch up the duration of the entire game with the Mystics who took a double-digit lead into the locker room and never looked back despite a few Mountie runs at various times of the game. Adds Mountie coach Steve Chapman, "MSVU was pretty impressive the way they defended and we did not match their energy. We did not shoot it very well and they did a good job keeping us on one side of the floor while we simply could not keep them out of the middle. Their bench points were a significant factor for sure along with a pretty balanced scoring attack". Leading the Mystics were freshmen guard Isaac Matheson with 17 points, Will Spaulding with 14, and Adam Callaghan with 13 who moved to 3-2 in ACAA play. For the Mounties, standout guard Noah McCarthy scored 33 points on 13-18 shooting, 4 of 8 from 3point land, had 6 rebounds and 2 steals. Tim Ellison added 10 points for the Mounties who were held to their lowest point total of the year.
The Mounties have two games remaining going into the semester break. All of the Mountie games and practices this year have been on the road and alternate practice locations as the team awaits delayed gym renovations to be ready upon return after Christmas. This Wednesday, the Mounties will travel to Crandall University in Moncton in a 7:00pm start. The game will actually be to complete their Nov 6 contest which had to be postponed halfway the second quarter when warm temps resulted in slippery floor conditions. The game will resume with 6:15 remaining in the second quarter with the Chargers narrowly leading 31-30. On Sunday, the Mounties are off to play the host Seawolves of UNBSJ in a 4:00pm start.
Go Mounties!