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Gaels lose heart-breaker to Laurentian 85-76 in Marco W. Alessio Memorial Game
York


KINGSTON, Ont. (January 10, 2015) – The Gaels (3-6) lost against the Laurentian Voyageurs (3-6) 85-76 Friday night at the ARC main gym. Second year guard Mike Mullins (Burlington, Ont.) was the recipient of the Marco W. Alessio Memorial Scholarship that is awarded to a men's basketball player that demonstrates both athletic and academic excellence.

Sukhpreet Singh (Toronto) led the offence for the Gaels, scoring 18 points. He was followed by Cy Samuels (Vaughan, Ont.) with 14 points, Patrick Street (Etobicoke, Ont) with 12 points and Ryall Stroud (Toronto) with 10 points and eight rebounds. Tychon Carter-Newman had an outstanding night for the Voyageurs scoring 23 points and grabbing nine rebounds. Sam Hirst also contributed 23 points to his team's win.

It was a close first half with the Gaels managing to get an edge up on the Voyageurs to pull ahead with a lead of 25-22 at the end of the first quarter. The Voyageurs tightened up their defence in the second quarter while the Gaels scrambled to settle, picking up fouls and sending Laurentian to the charity stripe 18 times in the first half. Matching each other in scoring in the second quarter the score was 47-44 for the Gaels at halftime.

The second half was a see-saw, back and forth game with both teams trading baskets and fighting to claim the lead. Laurentian pulled ahead but the Gaels responded aggressively to tie the score up at 62-62 going into the final frame. Queen's had the first basket but the Voyageurs hit a 6-0 run to grab their biggest lead of the night. After an uncharacteristically low scoring weekend, Greg Faulkner (Kingston, Ont.) sunk his first three of the game to tie up the score with three minutes left in play.

The final minutes were frantic as, frontman for the Voyageurs, Carter-Newman and Gael post player Mike Shoveller (Arnprior, Ont.) both fouled out of the game on a double-foul. The Gaels fought hard but the Voyageurs gained the upper hand and ended ahead by 85-76 despite Singh's buzzer beating three point shot.