MBB | Voyageurs Victorious on Kadre’s Magical Night

The Voyageurs had an exquisite outing on Friday night as they took down the number seven ranked team in the country, the McMaster Marauders, by a score of 97-85. 

The first quarter was a back-and-forth tussle between the two as the Marauders outscored the Voyageurs by just three points in the quarter. The Marauders shot 44.4% from the field while the Voyageurs shot 33.3% from the field. Kadre Gray led the way for the Voyageurs with seven points in the quarter and this was just the beginning of what would turn out to be quite a monumental and special night for the veteran guard. 

However, starting in the second quarter, the Voyageurs pulled away from the Marauders. They outscored the Marauders 29-16 on 54.5% shooting, while restricting the Marauders to 40.0% shooting. Once again, Kadre Gray and Haroun Mohamed led the way in scoring with nine points each. On the other hand, Connor Gilmore led the way in scoring for the Marauders with five points. At the end of the second quarter, the Voyageurs held a ten point lead as the score read 45-35. 

The Voyageurs continued their offensive onslaught in the third when they added 24 points to extend their lead. But to the credit of the Marauders, they did not lag far behind and added 21 points of their own while shooting 47.1% from the field and restricting the Voyageurs to 38.9% shooting. Kadre Gray added 10 points and Sam Ivey added six points in the quarter whereas Jordan Henry was the leading scorer for the Marauders with six points in the quarter. At the quarter's conclusion, the Voyageurs held a 13-point lead.

The fourth quarter was most successful scoring quarter for the Marauders but unfortunately, it was too little to late for them as they were unable to close the gap. They did manage to cut the Voyageur lead to six points with 1:27 remaining in the match but then Joseph Hlady stepped up and drained a dagger three that would vanquish any hopes of a Marauder comeback. The Voyageurs would go on to take the victory by a score of 97-85. 

Kadre Gray finished with 31 points and in doing so became Laurentian's all-time leading scorer with 1726 points and counting. He surpassed Norm Hann's record of 1722 points which was not broken since 1993. 

"I'm happy of the result" said Litha Ncanisa of their most recent performance but he was also quick to acknowledge that McMaster was a formidable foe, who were able to cut the Voyageur lead to six points late in the fourth quarter : "They are a good team. We knew with a team like this, this was going to happen. Teams going back and forth because no one just rolls over during the game so for us, the biggest thing was trying to refocus, every possession and improving on [the] previous mistake that [was made] in the past." 

The Voyageurs are right back at it tomorrow at 8 pm when they host the Brock Badgers at Ben Avery Gymnasium. 

Wali Khan