GUELPH, ON – The Guelph Gryphons men's basketball team couldn't say goodbye to the W.F. Mitchell Athletics Centre without a win.
The Gryphs picked up a dominating 87-65 victory over the York Lions in OUA action on Saturday night.
It marked the last time the Gryphs will play at the Mitchell Centre. Starting in January, their home court will be the brand new Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre.
"There were some dicey moments where we got a little undisciplined and it hurt us," said head coach
Chris O'Rourke, "but to win decisively in our last game there was certainly a positive, for sure."
"That's the way you want to go out, right?" asked veteran forward
Ahmed Haroon, one of eight fourth-year players on this club. "After being in that gym for so many years, you definitely want to go out with a win like that."
And Haroon was one of the catalysts in making it happen. He led all scorers with 22 points, with 18 of those coming in the first half. He also grabbed five defensive rebounds, and six boards in total.
"Ahmed has really stepped up," O'Rourke said. "In the first half, he set the tone offensively, and he's done that in every league game."
"I've been lucky this year," Haroon said, laughing. "Just luck, man. A little bit of skill, a little bit of hard work, and a lot of luck."
The Mississauga, ON native felt that the real key to Saturday's decisive win was simply paying attention to detail.
"It came down to executing all the things we've talked about in film and in practice – how to contain them, how to play certain guys, keying in on their scorers, keying in on who can't shoot," he said, adding this was an important game even if it hadn't been the last one at the Mitchell Centre.
"Our team definitely needed this. We came in with the mentality that it was a do-or-die game, because we just couldn't afford to go down to 2-4 going into the break."
Haroon also said it was important that the Gryphs bounce back from two recent losses against divisional rivals Brock and McMaster.
"I'm glad we came back today and showed what we have to offer."
The Gryphs now have a 3-3 record in the OUA Central Division, while the Lions fall to 2-4 in the OUA East. It was the second loss in as many nights for York, and O'Rourke said he knew the fact that York had played on Friday might also be a key.
"We felt confident in our game plan and felt like the guys were really focused, and I thought that for the most part we executed what we wanted to," he said.
"I still think we gave up about 10 points of easy back-door cuts, which we shouldn't have; I think we were a little sloppy on that. But I thought overall, defensively, we did the job. Any time you score 80 plus and only give up 60 something, we'll take it."
The coach was also pleased with the performances of players like
Kingslee D'Silva and
Andrew Grant. D'Silva, who is now in his second year with the Gryphons, had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Grant, a fourth-year guard from Toronto, collected 13 points, six boards and seven steals.
Saturday's margin of victory was by far Guelph's biggest of the season. O'Rourke wants the team to keep working on developing a killer instinct – the drive to gain and keep control of games, and to close them out in dominating fashion.
"That's just a focus and a discipline thing that we're continually harping on, that we have to be more consistent if we want to make that jump to a higher level in the top teams in Ontario," he said.
They'll get back to working on that when they visit Montreal for a tournament at UQAM from Dec. 29 to 31. Their OUA action resumes on Jan. 6 at the University of Toronto and on Jan. 7 at Ryerson.
Guelph's next home game, and first game in their new home, is Jan. 13 against Laurier.
