George Brown College men’s and women’s basketball teams begin the campaign with wins at home
Home sweet home.
The George Brown College (GBC) men’s and women’s basketball teams kicked off their seasons at the Casa Loma campus, going up against the Loyalist Lancers on Saturday Oct. 20. By all accounts, it was a successful showing as both teams picked up victories.
The women opened the day’s action. The game was tight early on with the Huskies trailing the Lancers 20-18 after the opening quarter. However, it was in the second quarter when GBC took control, outscoring Loyalist by 14 points to lead 37-25 at the half.
As Huskies head coach Warren Williams noted, his team stayed composed until they found their rhythm.
“When things finally got going for us in the second quarter and the third quarter, I thought we were just able to capitalize on some of their errors and make sure that we got a lead that was sustainable,” he said.
The third quarter was indeed impressive for the Huskies as they outscored the Lancers 20-7 to essentially take the game away.
Point guard Zae Sellers, who has joined the team after playing last season at Ohio Valley University in the U.S., posted a game-high 16 points in the 63-46 victory. Sellers credits the cohesiveness with the club for the early success.
“We’re a really united team off the court and it’s starting to show on the court as well.
We’re really good friends,” she said.
As for the men, they found themselves in a tougher battle with Loyalist.
It was back-and-forth through the opening half and the clubs were tied at 36 at halftime.
However, it was in the third quarter where GBC took control, outscoring the Lancers 27-19, giving them a lead they would not relinquish.
The Huskies went on to close out an 85-72 win.
New GBC men’s basketball head coach, Peter Sambu was pleased to secure the victory in his debut but noticed that there are areas his team needs to clean up.
“We did some things out of character that I didn’t see over the last couple of weeks,” said Sambu.
Loyalist’s Angelo Sarsonas had a game-high 25 points while Liban Mohamed led the Huskies with 23 points.
GBC power forward Adam Costanzo, who topped all players with 12 rebounds, agreed with his new head coach’s assessment about fine tuning a few things.
“We didn’t execute as well, we definitely didn’t defend as well as we could’ve,” Costanzo noted.
“We let a couple of guys get off early and their confidence just stayed throughout the game but what I liked is that we stayed with it for 40 minutes,” he added.
