Lancers men's basketball wins eighth straight
By Michal Tellos
Lance Writer
February 6, 2008
 The Windsor Lancers men’s basketball team picked up their eighth straight win as they steamrolled over the visiting Waterloo Warriors last Wednesday, 99-54, strengthening their first place position in the OUA west division.
In the first quarter, the Lancers lost the tip-off and didn’t move well from there, as they trailed the Warriors 12-6 with 5:25 left. This forced head coach Chris Oliver to act, and he later recalled that the team looked initially “sluggish” and that they had to be reminded “they were playing against a CIS team.” Oliver changed all five players on the court, and the Lancers exploded offensively on a 13-point run, ending the quarter with a 21-14 lead.
Picking up where they left off in the first quarter, the Lancers continued to dominate the Warriors in the second, scoring more and allowing less. Monty Hardware also started to score more often, ending the half with 10 points, including some dramatic fast-breaks and a long-ball, helping to end the half with a 23-point lead, 44-27.
The game was all but over by the end of the third quarter, which at one point saw the Lancers more than doubling the Warriors’ score, 69-33. It proved to be the best offensive quarter for Windsor, as they scored an impressive 29 points, ending the third 73-41.
Windsor players Greg Surmacz and Ryan Steer played well as usual, but according to Oliver, it was due to a few others as well.
“Monty Hardware obviously scored on the offensive end. Monty had actually played much better away from home on this stretch, but I think this weekend he got a little more comfortable playing at home. Certainly today he played really well from home. And you see it with Tyler Carey and Kevin Cameron and these guys, and our twelfth guy off the bench Jonathan Burnett looked comfortable at times.”
Hardware and Surmacz led the team in scoring, 14 points each, with players like Burnett, who scored 11, looking in fine form as well.
Nothing went right for the Warriors, as their key scorers all struggled. It was the same story for their defense, which consistently struggled all night.
After the game, Coach Oliver commented on their “improvement down the stretch,” crediting the win to “how hard we’ve competed on almost every possession on defense,” even adding that the team is better than last year’s in this respect.
Oliver went on to comment on the team’s depth and improved athleticism as well.
This Saturday will prove to be a big game in the OUA west, when the 12-4 Windsor Lancers host the 11-5 Brock Badgers at 2 p.m.
Oliver explained that the Lancers will have to play better when they face Brock on Saturday but remains optimistic, “I can’t wait, I mean that’s why you coach at this level, it’s to play games like that.”
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