After a tough 68-54 loss to Windsor on Friday, the Varsity Blues men’s basketball team (7-12, 5th OUA East) was manhandled by the CIS #2 Western Mustangs, 79-53 on Saturday night.
The Mustangs (17-2, 1st OUA East) took little time to open up a huge lead that the Blues could not overcome.
“The first 10 minutes were pretty close,” said Toronto’s rookie guard Kofi Kusi-Achampo. “We lost focus, and when you do that against a good team, they’ll bury you.”
With six minutes left in the first half, the Mustangs took a 19-point lead, spurred by their leading scorer Andy Kwiatkowski’s 13 first-half points.
“It came down to defensive execution… we didn’t get good coverage on them tonight,” said Toronto’s Matt Sturgeon.
The Blue’s offence was as lethargic as the defence on Saturday, as they shot a weak field goal percentage (37 percent) and allowed their opponents to shoot an impressive 53.8 per cent from inside the arc.
“We got lackadaisical and weren’t rotating well on offense,” said Sturgeon. The best example of this occurred in the dying minutes of the first half, when Western turned the ball over three times. On two of those occasions, the Blues went to the free-throw line and could not convert.
Kwiatkowski had 27 points for the Mustangs to go with 10 rebounds. Toronto’s leading scorer was Tom Grochmal, who contributed with 17 points and 9 rebounds.
The Mustangs, who led by as many as 28 points in the second half, are heavy favourites to win this year’s OUA championship. U of T, on the other hand, will try to make the most of their last three regular season games and get into a decent position before the playoffs. Toronto coach Ken Olynyk said the Blues have to improve in all aspects of their game before the playoffs.
“We have to start playing well before the playoffs. On defense, we have to slow down the other team’s transition plays,” he said. “Like tonight, they [the Mustangs] had 25 points in transition.”
Toronto’s next game is on Saturday against the Laurentian University Voyageurs at 2 p.m. That game might very well be a sneak preview of a first-round playoff match up.
“It’s been a season of highs and lows,” said Kusi-Achampo, referring to such great moments as Toronto’s upset of CIS #2 Carleton last week, and demoralizing losses like Saturday’s game against Western.
