MBB | Voyageurs Fall to Laurier in Hard-Fought Battle

The Laurentian Voyageurs ended the first half of the season with a loss to the Laurier Golden Hawks Saturday night at the Ben Avery by a score of 78-69.

The Voyageurs came out flying in the first quarter, feeding off the energy brought on by the fans, exploding to a quick 16-8 lead only minutes in. They continued to build on that through outstanding shooting, shooting nearly 60% in the first quarter and accumulating a 25-13 lead after one.

In the second, the Laurier offense picked up a bit, improving their field goal percentage to nearly 50% in the quarter. Laurentian struggled to get anything going for the majority of the second quarter but a nice 14-6 run to end the quarter kept them in a solid position, up eight going into the second half.

The second half started with more push from Laurier to try to come back and even more resilience defensively from Laurentian, limiting the Hawks to just one made three-pointer in the third quarter.  The Voyageurs countered that by making four of their own to keep the Golden Hawks at bay through 3 quarters, still being up by a solid seven points, 60-53.

The fourth quarter started and it seemed all the work Laurentian put in through the first 30 minutes went to waste. Defensively, they gave up easy scores for Laurier, who got themselves back tied just two minutes into the fourth. Laurentian seemed to have no answer, as they were only able to put up nine total points in the fourth on just 33% shooting and were out-rebounded 10-6 in the process. The final score read 78-69 in favour of the away side, as it was a tough one to swallow for the Voyageurs, playing a fantastic first three quarters of the game.

The game's key performers featured the entire starting lineup as all five starters (Cedric Mbiaba, Caillou Lacroix, Coban Scott, Gaëtan Chamand, Abdulmajid Hassan) pitched in with double digits point tallies.  

Laurentian starts the second half of the season on January 8th when they hit the road to face the Algoma Thunderbirds in Sault Ste. Marie.

Andrew Lemieux