The Laurier Golden Hawks have not lost a game since November 27th. While that's partly due to the OUA season having been put on pause due to the pandemic, it's still an impressive statement - and "impressive" is a word that describes much of what we've seen from the purple and gold since the holiday break.
After Wednesday's back-and-forth nail-biter, which saw the Golden Hawks win on a game-winning dunk with four seconds left, this afternoon's tilt with the Western Mustangs was much less dramatic.
Western never led after the first three minutes of the first quarter, and the final score was a comfortable 95-80 in favour of Laurier.
The opening frame has been an area of weakness for the Golden Hawks this season, and they've often found themselves chasing games in the middle quarters. Not so today, as the visiting Mustangs were subjected to an offensive onslaught from the opening tip-off. Laurier's backcourt duo of
Ali Sow and
Romello Taylor led the charge, dropping 12 and 11 first quarter points, respectively. The Golden Hawks led 30-17 after ten minutes of play.
Western was able to tighten up defensively in the second quarter, cutting the lead to 48-38 at halftime. They did themselves no favours on offence, though. The Mustangs made only two of their 11 attempted three-pointers in the first half, while Laurier shot a red-hot 50% from the arc.
The Mustangs' offensive struggles were in large part due to being without OUA scoring leader Omar Shiddo, who scored 30 points in Wednesday's game. He and the Golden Hawks'
KJ Massela each played very physically in their one-on-one matchups, which resulted in both players being given a game off to recuperate.
Laurier opened the second half with a 13-4 run, capped off by a
Benhur Gebrekidan shot clock-beater. Gebrekidan finished with fifteen points on five of ten shooting from three-point range.
With the Golden Hawks leading 68-57 heading into the final frame, Sow and Taylor continued to cause problems for the Mustangs. Somewhat surprisingly, today marked the first time when both players reached 30 points in the same game. And even when they weren't scoring, the two guards were still able to contribute on offence, notching six assists each.
While Laurier fans have come to expect this kind of play from Sow, Taylor has played exceptionally well since the break.
Manager of Men's Basketball Operations & Head Coach
Justin Serresse sees his performance as a key driver of the team's recent success.
"He's unleashing his potential right in front of us," he said after the game. "At the end of the game, when Ali was getting box-and-one'd, we were able to still score because Melo was able to handle the ball and make some good plays and be very steady."
Today's win extends the Golden Hawks' win streak to six games. Their 8-4 record is good for third in the OUA West and, with just four games left in the regular season, they find themselves in an enviable position heading into the playoffs.
Top Performers
Golden Hawks
G -
Ali Sow and
Romello Taylor
Both players were stand-outs and seemed to be feeding off each other's success. Sow (31 pts, 6 ast, 4 reb) and Taylor (30 pts, 6 ast, 4 reb) are the heart of this team, and it showed this afternoon.
Mustangs
Aryan Sharma
Sharma did his best to fill the absent Shiddo's shoes, scoring 24 points on nine of 17 shooting.
Up Next
The Golden Hawks will be back on the road Wednesday at 8 PM when they pay a visit to the Guelph Gryphons. You can watch the action live, as always, at OUA.tv.
