Men's basketball splits another weekend
By Michal Tellos
Sports Editor
December 3, 2008
 You win some, you lose some.
This cliché seems to have been personified in the last two road trips of the Lancers men’s basketball team, who once again won one game and lost another, this time beating the Royal Military College Paladins by a score of 114-40, but losing to the Queen’s Golden Gaels 61-59.
The Paladins, who have not won a game yet this year, might as well have given up early on in their game against the Lancers.
RMC scored nearly half of its total points in the first quarter, where they were still outscored 28-18. This would prove to be as close as they would get to the lead.
The second quarter put the game out of reach, as the Lancers held the Paladins to just nine points, but scored 31 of their own.
The third quarter went much the same way, but the fourth quarter was just an embarrassment, as the Paladins were held to just one basket, while the Lancers scored 29 points.
It was by far the biggest margin of victory on the season thus far.
The Lancers were led by Matt Day who had 18 points, rookie Ellis Ffrench who made every shot he took and scored 13, and Kevin Cameron, who had his first double-double of the season. Isaac Kuon also chipped in with 15.
Against such an opponent, however, the entire team managed to contribute, as everyone on the bench played.
Saturday’s game was much closer, and ultimately went to the home team Queen’s.
The tone of the game was set early on – low-scoring and back and forth.
The Lancers narrowly outscored the Golden Gaels in the first frame, 11-9, and this is how the game progressed.
In any quarter, neither team outscored the other by more than three points.
However, Queen’s took charge in the fourth, ultimately edging the Lancers by a bucket.
The game was lost partially as a result of poor rebounding, but mostly due to a poor shooting percentage, particularly at the free throw line. The team missed over one-third of free-throws taken, and shot poorly from the field.
The loss was highlighted by a strong performance from Greg Surmacz, who scored 21 points and was one rebound shy of a double-double. Also helping out were Isaac Kuon with 11 points, and Andre Smyth with 10 points and six rebounds.
The win and loss puts Windsor at 5-3, tied for second in the OUA west division. They are ranked fifth in Canada.
Interestingly, the Carleton Ravens are 7-1 in the OUA east and ranked first in Canada, but their only loss came to the Lancers in a home game in November.
The team is now finished the first semester portion of the 2008-2009 season, and will not play until Jan. 7, when they will host the Guelph Gryphons at the St. Denis Centre at 8 p.m.
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