WATERLOO, Ont. - This one felt good.
It's been just over two years since Western eliminated Laurier in the 2020 OUA semifinals, robbing the Golden Hawks of their ticket to the U Sports national championship.
On Wednesday night, the purple and gold finally returned the favour, dominating the Mustangs and earning a 103-72 victory in the OUA West quarter-finals.
Right from the opening tip, the Golden Hawks all seemed to be on the same page, resulting in one of their best starts this season.
Ben Stevens opened the scoring with eight straight points, and Laurier held a 25-13 lead after one quarter.
The Golden Hawks continued their strong play throughout the second quarter, with Stevens once again leading the charge offensively. He finished with 12 points and eight rebounds in the first half.
At halftime, the court seemed heavily tilted in Laurier's favour. Not only did they lead 53-30, but they completely outclassed the Mustangs in both field-goal percentage (61.1% to 29.4%) and rebounds (25 to 13).
Western's Omar Shiddo, who led all U Sports players with 28.2 points per game this season, led the Mustangs with 19 first-half points, but the Golden Hawks did an excellent job of forcing him to make tough shots and eliminating virtually any other scoring opportunity for the Mustangs.
"You don't guard a guy like that one-on-one, you guard him with team effort, everybody's paying attention to him," said Manager of Men's Basketball Operations & Head Coach
Justin Serresse after the game.
And while Laurier's commitment to strong team defence was evident tonight, credit is due to
Kareem Elliott, who's done an excellent job since stepping in for the injured
KJ Massela as the Golden Hawks' go-to defender.
Elliott also had a strong game offensively, matching his career-high with 12 points on excellent 71% shooting.
With
Romello Taylor taking over as the offensive play driver, the Golden Hawks managed to grow their lead even further in the third quarter. The score was 79-51 heading into the fourth.
By the time the final buzzer sounded, all five Laurier starters had reached double-digits in points, including Elliott, Taylor (18 points, seven assists),
Benhur Gebrekidan (12 points, eight rebounds), and
Ali Sow (22 points, 67% shooting).
"It was a team effort from top to bottom. Everybody that played contributed positively," said Serresse.
The standout, however, was
Ben Stevens, who set season-highs in points (22) and rebounds (15).
"Usually, Ben has been pretty strong in the playoffs. For him it's all about the energy he puts in on the floor," said Serresse. "When he's confident and he's asking for that ball, he's demanding it, the guys find him."
With the win, the Golden Hawks move on to face the U Sports #5-ranked Brock Badgers in the OUA West semifinal. Brock was the top seed in the OUA West division with a record of 14-1 and beat Laurier in back-to-back games to open the regular season.
Despite this, Serresse said he and the team are feeling confident heading into Saturday's matchup.
And after tonight's performance, who could blame them?
Top Performers
Golden Hawks
Tonight was
Ben Stevens' fourth double-double of the season, and his 22-point performance is all the more impressive due to his shooting a ridiculous 91% from the field.
Mustangs
While the Golden Hawks did a great job of contesting every shot taken by Omar Shiddo, he still scored 31 points, a testament to his offensive ability.
Up Next
The Golden Hawks will face Brock Saturday at the Bob Davis Gymnasium in St. Catherines.
Tip-off is set for 2 PM and all the action can be seen live on OUA.tv.
