By Dexter LeRuez
The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men’s basketball team dropped an 88-87 game to the University of Toronto (U of T) Varsity Blues at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC) to tip-off their season on Saturday night.
Although the game was tight, a similar theme popped up in all four quarters of play. TMU came out hot each time to take a lead before letting U of T back in midway through the frame.
The pattern was most prevalent in the third quarter, where the Bold took an 11-point lead, their largest of the game, with 7:27 to play in the quarter only to have the Varsity Blues claw back to within point one in just over two minutes.
“We get up nine or eleven and they call a timeout and they come storming back and we give up eight, so our eleven-point lead has been erased. And, I don’t see any resistance in that, I don’t see us digging in,” said head coach David DeAveiro.
The Bold were able to keep the game close, even going up by one with twenty seconds on the game clock and five on the shot clock.
The Bold’s Ankit Choudhary missed his layup on the inbounds, allowing U of T’s Inaki Alvarez to take the ball the other way for his layup that ultimately iced the game for the Varsity Blues.
“What went wrong today was when we had our shootaround, two guys were late. That’s what went wrong today,” said DeAveiro. “We didn’t get to cover what we wanted to cover in our shootaround and one of the things that was on the list was a last-second play that we were trying to run.”
During his post-game media availability, DeAveiro also mentioned that first-year guard Isaiah McRae has left the team for personal reasons and added he couldn’t comment further on the matter.
The mood was somber after the game, with DeAveiro looking back over the last several months the team put together.
“I would say I’m disappointed because I’ve let it get to this point,” he said.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom in the Bold camp following the season-opening loss. Recent transfer Lincoln Rosebush had a career night, scoring 23 points on 9-13 shooting including making all four of his shots from three-point range.
Rosebush, who joined the Bold after transferring from the University of British Columbia, averaged just five points in his final season with the Thunderbirds. Now on the Bold, he feels like he has more freedom to play how he wishes.
“They trust me here,” said Rosebush. “I have way [more] of a leash than at UBC, I was a role player…if you make a mistake you’re out. Here I have the ability to play with some freedom, make some mistakes and they trust that the positives will outweigh the negatives.”
DeAveiro also had high praise for the big man.
“You can’t underestimate the value of having a vet who’s been through it over and over again,” he said. “He’s got skills that a lot of guys don’t have, we’re trying to feature his skills and he’s performing well.”
Rosebush appreciated the atmosphere from the TMU faithful in his first regular season game at the MAC. However, there was one fan in particular Rosebush appreciated the most.
“My brother was here tonight, he got to see me play once in the summer at UBC, it wasn’t a game it was only a scrimmage,” he said. “He’s been at most of the games so far since I’ve been here so that‘s been cool for me. He actually goes to U of T. So, 1-0 him.”
It won’t be long until Rosebush and the Bold get the chance to even up the score with U of T. TMU will travel cross town on Wednesday this week to complete a home-and-home series to open up the season.
“Focus, really it’s just details, little details that we’re missing. Coach had a lot to say about that,” said Rosebush “It can’t be four guys doing one thing and another guy not doing it.”
UP NEXT: The Bold will get their chance at revenge when they travel to U of T on Nov. 9. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m.
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