By Santiago Ortega

The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men’s basketball team defeated the Western Mustangs Saturday night at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC), winning a 71-68 dogfight of a game. 

The win marked the Bold’s sixth straight victory after an opening loss, giving TMU athletics as a whole a clean sweep of victories on a day six games were hosted at the MAC. 

Both teams came into the game leading their divisions, with the Bold atop the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Central and the Mustangs the West.

With a zone defence that made finding holes difficult for the Bold all night, the men found any way possible to get an “ugly win” tonight, as Bold head coach David DeAveiro described it. 

“It’s no excuse, but it’s hard to play two games back-to-back when you’re playing two teams who play completely different,” said DeAveiro. “One team is in zone for 40 minutes, the other team is pushing up on you and pressuring you and playing really good half-court defence.”

Western found the first points of the game, but second-year Bold guard/forward Gurdeep Kalsi responded swiftly, draining a corner three-ball to kick off TMU’s scoring. This back-and-forth would be a common theme all game, bleeding into the second frame.

Second-year Bold guard Nathaniel Savage kicked off the second quarter the same way as the first, draining a three-point bucket. Western fought back and after a TMU timeout three minutes later, the game was all tied up at 27. 

With two minutes left in the second, Kalsi drained another three to give the Bold their biggest lead of the night up to that point, 41-32. The Mustangs wouldn’t let that figure stand, and going into the half, the score stood 42-38 in favour of the Bold.

Fifth-year forward Ares Culley-Bremner ignited the MAC with a thundering dunk to put the Bold up by ten, marking the score at 54-44 past the halfway point in the third. 

Culley-Bremner also shined on defence, finishing with 17 rebounds on the night, tied for eighth-most in a match in Bold History.  

“We don’t win tonight without Ares,” said DeAveiro. 

Culley-Bremner however, was a little more tongue-in-cheek about his performance. “Western plays zone the whole game, so it’s kind of free boards if you’re a big man,” said Culley-Bremner. “Take it with a grain of salt, but it feels good.”

Fourth-year TMU guard Gabriel Gutsmore built on Culley-Bremner’s momentum with a tough layup while drawing a foul to put the Bold up 12. Gutsmore finished the game with a team-leading 21 points.

Western would get their own dunk from third-year center Tye Cotie to finish off the third down just five.

As time winded down in the fourth quarter, fans from both sides started to get into the close game. With two minutes left, Kalsi found Gutsmore next to the rim as the shot clock winded down. He went up for another tough layup to keep the Bold up.

“I think the last two days showed that Gabe can beat anyone and now he’s making really good decisions when he does beat people,” commented DeAveiro.

Western still would not go down easily, relentlessly pulling themselves back within even. 

After second-year Bold guard Fernando De Los Santos missed a free throw with the Bold up three, fifth-year Mustangs guard Milan John grabbed the board and drove up the court. Instead of shooting a three, however, he opted for a layup that Kalsi defended as De Los Santos picked up the rebound and another foul with 01.8 on the clock

De Los Santos wouldn’t be able to bury the dagger at the free-throw line, which was a recurring story for TMU. Much to their luck, fifth-year Western forward Lucas Sheets couldn’t find a man after grabbing the rebound and passed it to nobody as time expired.

DeAveiro praised the team for winning the matchup where neither team ever got too deep in a groove.

“They had to survive this as a group and I thought we did that today.”

Coming out with two wins after a tough weekend, he commends the team for finding a way to win. 

“We just played the eighth and [eleventh] ranked team in the country. That’s hard for anyone to do. For us to hang on and win an ugly game, I’ll give our guys credit.”

UP NEXT: TMU faces the Waterloo Warriors at home next Friday, Nov. 20 . Tip-off is set for 8 p.m.