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Rams basketball

Rams give up 105 points to Queen’s in second straight loss

by Kahfeel Buchanan November 8, 2021

written by Kahfeel Buchanan

The Rams now sit 0-2 after losing their first two games to start the 2021-22 season. (Curtis Martin/Ryerson Rams)

The Rams men’s basketball team lost its second straight game to the Queen’s University Gaels Sunday, falling 105-100 at the Mattamy Athletic Centre after jumping out to a 14-2 lead in the first quarter.

The Rams had held Queen’s to 87 points in the season opener Friday night.

“We can’t give up 100 points in a game, we can’t give up 90 points in a game,” said head coach David DeAveiro. “That’s been our Achilles heel so far in the first part of the season.”

After rushing out to a 12-point lead in the first, the Rams turned the ball over seven times in the remaining five minutes of the quarter.

“I think it’s more of a communication thing,” said first-year forward Aaron Rhooms. “As a group we’re pretty close. It’s a matter of communication and sometimes there’s a lapse in terms of a switch here or there.”

The Rams struggled with ball security all night, turning the ball over 24 times to Queen’s 16.

“Sometimes guys are trying to do too much and that leads to turnovers,” said DeAveiro. “I think a lot of it has to do with trust. You build trust the more you play with people,”

The Rams seemed to be in control of the game at halftime as first-year forward Kayode Fakomi’s breakaway dunk tied the game at 48-48 with just over a minute left.

The Rams ended the half on a 13-2 run and led 53-50 at the half.

But the Rams offence was not able to keep pace with Queen’s as they scored 28 points in the third quarter and 27 in the fourth.

The game was in striking distance for the Rams until late in the fourth quarter when Queen’s third-year guard Cole Syllas was fouled by second-year guard Tom Dumont on a made layup.

Syllas drained the free throw and made it a 103-97 game with 20 seconds left.

Rhooms and second-year guard Tyler Sagl lead the Rams in scoring with 22 points each.

Rhooms said that DeAveiro has been a supportive coach so far in his first two OUA games this season.

“I get my confidence from my team and coach Dave [DeAveiro],” said Rhooms. “He’s been really supportive and let me know that I can make an impact right away. I have confidence in myself and confidence that we can really do something here.”

Fourth-year guard Cameron Bett led Queen’s in scoring with 25 points. The Queen’s bench also had a strong night, scoring 52 points.

DeAveiro said that the team will be focusing on the defensive side of the ball before the team makes the trip up to North Bay to play the Nipissing Lakers on Nov. 12 and 13.

“It’s all about defence. We can talk about offence all we want, but you have to be able to stop teams from scoring, and we haven’t been able to do that so far.”

November 8, 2021

Basketball Sports Top Top stories

Dodig steps up for Rams, leads women’s team to home opening win

by Donald Higney November 5, 2021

written by Donald Higney

Marin Scotten leads the Rams on a fast break at the end of the first half of the women’s basketball team against the Queen’s Gaels. (Donald Higney/On The Record)

The Rams women’s basketball team overcame a five-point deficit in the final minutes of the fourth quarter to earn their first win of the season, beating the Queen’s Gaels 68-65 Friday night at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.

With less than three minutes remaining in the game, third-year forward Rachel Farwell shot a jumper coming from a nice pass from third-year guard Tiya Misir, bringing the Gaels lead down to two points.

Misir then stole the ball on the Gaels’ ensuing possession. The ball ended up in fourth-year guard Stefanija Mrvaljevic hands, who then passed it to an open Mikaela Dodig. The fifth-year guard tied up the game at 65 points apiece.

Coming out of their timeout the Gaels drew up a play for fourth-year guard Emma Weltz, who missed her jumper. Mrvaljevic came down with her ninth rebound of the night.

Queens fourth-year forward Julia Chadwick was able to steal the ball back but the Rams were able to force a miss from Gaels fourth-year guard Laura Donovan.

With 44 seconds left in the game Dodig hit another three from a pass from Mrvaljevic, giving the Rams a three-point lead.

“I just knew I was open and shot the three,” said Dodig. “It ended up going in. I honestly wasn’t thinking much.”

Dodig said that sometimes it’s better not to think about the big shots when they happen.

“It was just in the flow of the game. It felt pretty effortless.”

It was the last basket scored for either team, but it wouldn’t come without suspense. On the last possession of the game the ball ended up in Donovan’s hands but the referee ruled her out of bounds, thanks to hounding defence from fourth-year guard Marin Scotten.

Both Scotten and Dodig played the entire game. Dodig said that it felt great because she was having fun on the court contributing to the team.

“Especially having a whole year off, I’ll take playing the whole game any day.”

The game marked the first time the Rams returned to the court for league play after intercollegiate sports were shut down due to COVID-19.

Head coach Carly Clarke said that she trusts Dodig and Scotten as veterans to play big minutes when the team needs it.

She called Dodig “an anchor” in reference to her shot and her defence on the last possession of the game.

Dodig led the team in scoring with 25 points. She made four threes, more than the entire Queen’s team. Farwell contributed 16 points in 27 minutes, and Scotten had 13.

The Rams struggled to stop the Gaels from scoring in the paint, allowing 46 points. Clarke said that Queens ran many different types of plays near the basket which threw the team off.

The Rams started with a smaller lineup, with the six-foot third-year forward Farwell taking the opening tip for the Rams. The smaller lineup helped the team to play in transition, scoring 20 points off of 20 defensive rebounds.

They were also active on the offensive glass, bringing down 16 compared to Queen’s nine.

The teams last faced each other in the 2019-20 OUA quarterfinal, which the Rams won 74-59.

Even though the women’s team got the win Clarke expressed how happy she was to be back playing basketball at the MAC.

“It has been a long time, but at the same time it also feels like we never left. Everything here is still the same. When we’re playing the game, it feels the same. It’s just a great feeling.”

Up Next: The Rams will travel to North Bay to play the Nipissing Lakers on Friday, Nov. 12.

November 5, 2021

Basketball Rams Athletics Sports Students Top Top stories

Deep and versatile Rams women’s basketball team ready to compete for national championship

by Donald Higney November 5, 2021

written by Donald Higney

Rams’ Marin Scotten on defence in the OUA Critelli Cup Championship versus the Brock Badgers. (Christian Bender/Rams Athletics)

It’s been over a year and a half since Rams varsity basketball has been played at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.

The last game was a provincial championship between the Rams women’s basketball team and their division rivals, the Brock Badgers.

The team went into the game ready to defend home court after their most successful season to date, winning a record 18 games and finishing first in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) central division.

A second Critelli Cup under head coach Carly Clarke’s guidance was all but a given.

Unfortunately, the Badgers’ third-year centre Sam Keltos had other plans. She exploded for 42 of Brock’s 84 points, helping the team win its first provincial championship since 1983.

Despite the loss, the Rams still qualified for national championships in Ottawa, but the University of Prince Edward Island Panthers proved to be too much in the end.

The Rams lost by five points in the national quarterfinals. They played a consolation game against the University of Calgary, marking the end of an otherwise successful season.

Since then, some players believe the pandemic has washed away the disappointing end of the 2019-20 season.

“I think it’s completely gone,” said Marin Scotten, a fourth-year guard for the Rams. “It was just so long ago [and] so much has happened… We’re living in an entirely different world.”

The Rams team also looks different this season. Four of the eight players who played in the provincial championship are no longer on the team.

Former starting point guard Hayley Robertson signed professionally in France, and then signed on as an assistant coach with the Waterloo Warriors.

The Warriors also hired longtime Rams assistant coach Jessica Roque to be their head coach.

With their departure comes nine new players to the team this season with a variety of different backgrounds.

“I think we’ve been fortunate to attract more great players to our program,” said Clarke. “We’ve got a lot of depth and versatility this season.”

Coming from the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) conference, the Rams added two-time AUS all-star guard Mikaela Dodig last year, who is poised to fill a big role this season.

Dodig played four seasons with the University of New Brunswick.

Dodig said the transfer from the AUS to the OUA is almost like playing in a new league, but she’s been working with the team since the end of July to prepare for the season.

While Clarke was at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with the national women’s basketball team, Dodig and her teammates worked with assistant coaches, starting with individual skill work and then moving to competitive drills.

The Rams also added Nyamuoch Teny and Eve Uwayesu, two fourth-year guards who transferred from the University of Windsor.

Coming from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the Rams added second-year guard Kaillie Hall from Bowling Green State in Ohio and third-year guard Tiya Misir from Long Island University in New York.

Hall has drawn attention from her teammates, especially for her defence and her active, offensive playstyle — either driving hard to the basket or cutting at the right time to get a good look.

“In terms of adding value, it’s just everyone’s goal to show up and do their job,” said Hall. “I think when we all collectively do that, really great things will happen.”

Hall, Misir and first-years Haley Fedick and Jayme Foreman stepped up in a big way during the team’s close win against Brock in the pre-season.

With numerous key players not playing due to injury management, the Rams squeaked out a one-point victory against the Badgers.

The new additions to the team also played a big role in a win against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, the defending national champions.

The Rams were down by 10 in the first quarter, but eventually pulled out a nine-point victory.

The team went undefeated in the pre-season, also beating the Western University Mustangs and the Warriors, a homecoming for Roque and Robertson.

“One thing I’ve learned about our team is that we’re extremely tough and we don’t give up easily,” said Misir. “We fight through everything. We’re very resilient and we’re extremely competitive. I feel like we bring that every day in practice, no matter what it is.”

Misir said when they play intense defence, it translates to their offensive play, with a high pace in transition.

“Our guards are really fast and everybody’s sprinting down the floor really fast. Even our bigs are quick. Once we attack we get it out to our shooters, and we’ve been knocking them down.”

The Rams have a lethal shooting attack with dynamic duo Scotten and third-year forward Rachel Farwell.

Farwell and Scotten were number one and two respectively in the three-point percentage bracket in the OUA.

Farwell has also impressed during the pre-season, playing some minutes at the centre spot after the departures of Bronwyn Williams and Emma Fraser this year.

With her ability to guard bigger players defensively and to stretch out the Rams offence with her shooting, she will be a key contributor this season.

One of the most important players this season will be Scotten. She returned to the team after graduating with a Bachelor of Journalism in June.

Scotten said she felt uneasy not knowing when her last game was going to be and wanted to give basketball and her teammates a proper goodbye.

“Everything felt really incomplete ending on that final year,” said Scotten.

This season will feature a new league-based structure for basketball, with two divisions comprising nine teams and a reduced 16-game regular season.

Each team will play each other twice.

Clarke said the changes in the schedule do not affect how the team will prepare because the OUA had previously changed formats regularly before the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the Rams will have more time to prepare for opponents and recover from games.

The Rams will play Queen’s, Nipissing, and Ontario Tech in the first half of the season, with the majority of those games happening on the road in North Bay and Oshawa.

After they return from the holiday break, they will play their final 10 games against the University of Ottawa, Laurentian, Carleton, York and the University of Toronto.

With the return of varsity basketball, Clarke is happy to be back to balance the long-term goal of winning championships with the day-to-day activities of the team.

“Our team always has sights on competing for a championship, but I think the big goal is just to really enjoy and be grateful for the opportunity to be back because it’s been so long,” said Clarke.

The Rams women’s basketball team will be returning to the MAC on Friday night for its first game of the season against the Queen’s Gaels.

November 5, 2021

Basketball Rams Athletics Sports Students Top Top stories

Rams men’s basketball team eager to return with a new-look team

by Lucas Reyes November 4, 2021

written by Lucas Reyes

Tom Dumont looks to get the ball to the basket against the Carleton Ravens in January 2020. Hung Le/Rams Athletics

Bouncing back from a global pandemic is hard, and the Rams men’s basketball team will be ridden with challenges this season.

The Rams begin their season at home at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC) this Friday, as they’ll host the Queen’s University Gaels in their first regular-season game in over a year and a half.

It’s a date that many players and fans of the team have set in their calendars, but a lot of work was done to get back to this point.

The Rams finished 16-6 in their last season of play, getting their lowest number of wins since the 2013-2014 season. They lost to the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees in the OUA quarterfinals.

While fans got used to seeing them dominate the regular season in years past, the makeup of this team is different, with the addition of several rookies and departure of several key players on the team.

There are 12 new players on the roster from two recruiting classes. It’s not surprising that there are so many new players, considering the OUA cancelled all fall sports in June 2020, and then extended that decision in October of that year.

The decision barred several rookies from seeing the floor last year.

Rams head coach David DeAveiro says he understands that learning to play as a new group will be a challenge, especially since it’s his first year coaching the team.

DeAverio was hired as head coach in April 2020, replacing interim coach Borko Popic, who took over from longtime head coach Roy Rana. Rana is currently an assistant coach with the NBA’s Sacramento Kings.

DeAverio says it’s going to be a development year and that the team will need time to grow.

“I don’t think we’re going to dominate anything,” says DeAveiro. “Everyone that was expecting to see the Ryerson teams of the old, I don’t think that’s going to happen this year.”

He said he expects things to be different compared to past years given how many new players are on the team. But something he wants to emphasize is playing hard, which would help elevate the talent on the team.

The team’s talent is shown on the offensive side of the floor. Its shooting looks promising given the abilities of players like second-year guard Tom Dumont, who DeAveiro noted as a shooting threat.

Dumont shot 50 per cent from the three-point line in the 2019-20 regular season, showing how scary he can be from beyond the arc.

“We look at Tom [Dumont], his whole role has changed,” DeAveiro says.

Dumont says he knows his shooting is going to be key in elevating his role on the team. He also feels confident that he can be a key contributor in more areas than shooting.

“I’m a pretty versatile player,” says Dumont. “On offence I can shoot it, drive and finish at the rim, or kick it to the open guy which enables the ball to move and be shared.”

At 21 years old and having played in both France and the United States, he has the basketball experience that some of the other players don’t have. It’s something he wants to use to help his younger teammates develop throughout the season.

“I want to improve at being more of a leader on the court,” he says. “Being able to have an impact on the game even if my shots aren’t hitting.”

One of the rookies who could benefit from the leadership is Aaron Rhooms, a first-year forward who stood out with 19 points and nine rebounds in the team’s opening pre-season loss against the Laurier Golden Hawks.

He says that communication on the court is what they need to improve on the most.

“We’re a new group of guys with varying ages, so it’s sometimes hard to talk to one another,” says Rhooms.

DeAveiro also emphasized communication, as he wants the team to pick up on it as the season progresses to help them on the defensive side of the ball.

“At this particular point, I think we’re much better offensively than defensively,” he says.

DeAveiro said that communication will be difficult to establish at first.

He mentioned the team’s lack of access to amenities during the pandemic is a big reason why they may need more time to gel than other programs not located in Toronto.

Underdeveloped communication, few veteran players, and a lack of length on the team can make it difficult to defend at the OUA level, which is something he’s aware of.

“Length was something we were trying to recruit, but we’re shorter in size than we would like to be,” he said.

This is especially true after losing seven-foot-two centre Tanor Ngom, who left a year ago to play NCAA Division I basketball for Florida State University.

Other players have departed for professional basketball opportunities. Tevaun Kokko is playing in Finland, Diar Alkaldy is in Iraq and Jayden Frederick is in Georgia.

However, the team has plenty of fresh legs given its rookie makeup, which can help the team be better defensively if they combine it with the commitment to play well on both ends of the floor.

“The part of my game that I’m most focused on right now is probably on the defensive end. I feel like I’m a decent defender but could definitely take it up a notch,” says Rhooms.

Despite this, the Rams understand they have the ability to score, and say they aren’t going to let their defensive concerns and inexperience stop them from playing competitively.

There is one last element that’s returning to the game along with the players — the fans.

“The game isn’t the same without the fans and having them back is great,” says fourth-year guard Eli Farrakhan.

DeAveiro said he is looking forward to seeing fans in the stands, as it ultimately played a role in his decision to join the Rams.

“Part of the reason I came to Ryerson was because I would see the crowds they had,” he says.

Ultimately, he has one message for fans as they return to fill the bleachers;

“Be patient with these guys.”

November 4, 2021