The Varsity Blues men’s basketball team had their work cut out for them this past week. With three games in four days, the Blues needed to make sure that they maintained their focus and composure to distance themselves from the rest of the teams in the OUA East and get closer to clinching the second seed and a first-round bye.
On Wednesday night, Toronto visited Ryerson in what turned out to be a thriller. The Blues led for most of the game, until a fourth-quarter surge by the Rams knotted the game at 74-74, forcing overtime. Veteran guard Anthony DeGiorgio kept the offence going late in the fourth and into overtime, until guard Justin Holmes knocked a clutch three-pointer in the dying seconds of the game to give Toronto an 82-80 win. Holmes led all scorers with 22 points, while forward Andrew Wasik scored 14 points and pulled down seven rebounds and reserve guard Arun Kumar also chipped in with 14 points. DeGiorgio ended the game with 13 points, nine of them coming in the last four minutes of regulation and in the overtime period.
York visited the Athletic Centre on Friday night, and once again Holmes led the way, scoring 19 points in a 71-58 win over the Lions. Forwards Drazen Glisic and Alex Hill had bounce-back games after shooting a combined 2-16 from the field at Ryerson by going a joint 13-24 and scoring 16 and 13 points against York, respectively. DeGiorgio recorded six points and eight assists while committing only one turnover, and Wasik added eight points and eight rebounds in the win.
On Saturday night, Toronto hosted Laurentian for another tough game. The Blues were down by as many as 14 points in the first half, but cut the deficit down to three points by the halftime. The Voyageurs opened their lead back up to 10 points in the second half, but a resilient Toronto team fought back and finally took an 82-81 lead with three minutes to go in the fourth-quarter after Wasik flipped up a layup and was fouled to make a three-point play.
“We struggled a bit in the first half,” said DeGiorgio. “We gave up 27 points in the first quarter (on Saturday), whereas (on Friday) we gave up 27 points to York in the first half, so defense was the limiting factor in us being down so much.”
DeGiorgio hit a crucial three-pointer with just over a minute left to give the Blues an 87-84 lead and held on for the 89-86 victory, overcoming the incredible shooting performance by Laurentian’s Isaiah and Manny Pasquale, who scored 29 and 27 points, respectively, and knocked down a combined 10 shots from beyond the arc. Unfortunately for the Voyageurs, Manny Pasquale couldn’t convert on a three as time ran out that would have tied the game.
