By Michael Grace-Dacosta
The Ryerson men’s basketball team (12-3) made a comeback — after back-to-back losses last weekend in Ottawa — by blowing out the Laurentian University Voyageurs, 81-55, Friday night at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC).
Centre Kadeem Green led the way for the Rams with a game-high 17 points and 10 boards in only 23 minutes of play.
“[Green] had a great game today. He’s so important for us when he cleans the glass,” Rams’ head coach Roy Rana said. “Hopefully we can get that consistent effort out of him because he’s really important for us.”
Point guard Jahmal Jones added 14 points and 8 assists.
The Rams jumped to a 13-4 lead in the opening minutes. Then the Voyageurs (10-5) battled to take the lead, 30-28, in the second quarter — on the back of star shooting guard Alex Ratte.
Ratte, who is second in CIS scoring with 25 points a game on 45 per cent shooting from field, is coming off a scorching 35-point outburst versus York University in his last game.
He scored nine points in a three-minute span in the second quarter, but the Rams rendered Ratte ineffective for the rest of game. Ratte finished the game with a team-high 13 points on 5-16 shooting.
“I thought Aaron [Best] did a great job,” head coach Rana said. “But you don’t shutdown [Ratte], you contain him.”
The Rams’ defense intensified and locked the Voyageurs down in the third quarter.
The Voyageurs didn’t score a point in the frame until the 5:21 mark. They didn’t even make their first field goal until there was about three minutes left in the quarter.
The Rams held the Voyageurs offense that ranks third CIS in field goal percentage (46.2 per cent) to just 26.3 per cent shooting from the field.
The Rams’ defense is fifth in the CIS in opponent’s field goal percentage at 38 per cent.
Once the game was put out of reach, both coaches started emptying their benches.
Rams’ guard Andy Agyepong, who doesn’t even have his own jersey and had to wear injured Ostap Choliy’s jersey, excelled in his limited minutes.
“[I wanted to] continue the momentum and hopefully spark something,” Agyepong said.
The Rams’ next opponent will be the Algoma University Thunderbirds (4-11) at the MAC on Saturday at 8:00 p.m.
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