Losses drop Brock to third in national rankings
Back-to-back losses at home dropped the previously undefeated Brock Badgers to third in the national men’s university basketball rankings.
Brock was second only to the seven-time defending Canadian champion Carleton Ravens in last week’s rankings, but that was before they lost 78-69 to the Ottawa Gee-Gees Friday night and 80-75 in overtime to Carleton the following night.
Taking Brock’s place behind Carleton in the top 10 are the Calgary Dinos, who jumped from fourth to second.
Also moving up in the rankings were the British Columbia Thunderbirds, fourth from fifth, and Ottawa, eighth from ninth.
The Alberta Thunderbirds dropped to fifth from third.
Rounding out the rankings are the McGill Redman, Laurentian Voyaguers, unchanged at sixth and seventh, respectively; the Dalhousie Tigers, ninth from eighth, and the Ryerson Rams, unchanged at 10th in Canada.
Bob Davis Gymnasium was sold
out for the Ottawa game and the Carleton game, a rematch of the Ontario University Athletics semifinal in March, attracted a crowd of 3,296 at Meridian Centre in downtown St. Catharines.
Tribute to titleists
Before the downtown game Saturday
week.
Skylar Pacheco, a third-year business major from Kitimat, B.C., scored a career-high two goals in a 5-4 come-from-behind overtime victory over the Waterloo Warriors in men’s hockey.
Stephanie Findlay, a second-year concurrent education major from Oakville, averaged 14 points and
9.5 rebounds in home-court losses to the Ottawa Gee-Gees, 68-55, and the Carleton Ravens, 60-41, in women’s basketball. night, the Brock Badgers men’s basketball team that won the Canadian championship in 2008 was honoured.
Players from that title-winning team took in the Brock-Carleton games after competing in an alumni game earlier in the day.
For Niagara Falls native and A.N. Myer graduate Mike Kemp, seeing more than 3,200 fans packing the Meridian Centre to watch a Brock basketball game was a very good sign.
“To see the program where it is now — because it struggled for a little bit — Brock basketball is in the best place it’s been since we were there,” Kemp said. “And I would argue that this team is a lot more talented than we were in 2008.
“The one thing we had over every team in the country is we all grew up together. That’s a rare thing to happen at a high level of sport.”
Four in a row
There’s no place like home, and for the Brock men’s hockey team lately, that home has been the win column.
Patrick Volpe, Jeff Corbett, Nate Looysen, Ayden MacDonald each scored a goal, and Clint Windsor stopped 27 shots as the Badgers doubled the Toronto Varsity Blues
4-2.
Saturday night’s whistle-to-whistle win was the team’s fourth victory in a row and fifth in a six-game home stand at Seymour Hannah Sports and Entertainment Centre in St. Catharines.
On Friday night, Brody Silk scored 2.22 into overtime to give the Badgers a 5-4 come-from-behind victory over the Waterloo Warriors.
Skylar Pacheco, with two evenstrength goals, and Keigan Goetz and MacDonald, both on the power play, scored for Brock in regulation.
Waterloo outshot the Badgers
34-30.
Brock, 8-5-3, resumes league play Friday, Jan. 5, versus the York Lions, 11-5-1, in Toronto.
Win streak snapped
Brock enters the break in the women’s university hockey schedule with back-to-back losses at home.
A 4-2 loss to the Western Mustangs Friday ended a five-game winning streak, and a 2-1 loss in overtime to the Laurier Golden Hawks dropped the Badgers’ record to 7-2-3-2, second in the conference to the Queen’s Gaels, 8-3-0-1.
Amanda Ieradi scored two goals for Brock, the second on the power play, in the loss to Western, and Kailey Peirson found the back of the net for the Badgers against Laurier.
The Golden Hawks scored the game-winner 12 seconds into overtime.
Brock is back on the ice for a regular-season game Saturday, Jan. 6, in Toronto versus the York Lions, 4-0-8-1.
Not horsing around
Brock’s Ontario Collegiate Equestrian Association team won the reserve high point championship at the Laurier Golden Hawks Show held at Ancaster Fairgrounds.
Kaitie Keen finished first in the open under saddle division, and Kortney Johnson and Ashley Enhill placed third and fourth, respectively, in the intermediate under saddle division.
Courtney Pritchard and Bryanna McCabe finished third and fourth for Brock in the open over fences division, while Kelsie Robertson went home with a sixthplace ribbon in the intermediate open fences divisions.
McCabe, who also placed third in the novice under saddle division, was declared overall champion among novice riders.
Second-place finishes in entrylevel divisions went to Kristen Bettio, in the under saddle, and Holly Harris, over fences.