Recap The Court

Jacob Smith

After two weeks of being in a three team tie, the 15-7 Guelph Gryphons have settled into the playoffs as the seventh seed and they host the 11-11, tenth seed Windsor Lancers in the first round of the OUA Critelli Cup playoffs.

The Gryphons won their regular season meeting with the Lancers, and both that game and the game that followed, a loss to the York Lions on the road, provide us with some keys to focus on. Guelph going up against physical teams like Windsor with heavy emphasis on the paint, can get muscled around and in foul trouble.

In their game against the Lancers, Windsor shot 47 free throws and Guelph committed 28 personal fouls trying to deal with the force Windsor was playing with getting to the rim.. In their following game against York, they were unable to gain much of an edge inside, which leads me to my key, playing more around the perimeter.

Guelph has several strong three-point shooters in Rain Jhaj, Julia Colavecchia and Hannah Bourdon. In their game against Windsor they shot 33 threes while they shot only 15 in their game against York. Being able to spread out the Lancers defence by taking more threes and longer range shots, may take some of the pressure off the paint and help them gain more of an edge going against a team that will have a size and strength advantage at the forward position.

On the side of the Lancers, they have to do what they’ve done to teams all season, make the game messy. With the personnel Windsor has and how they play, they won’t get pushed around by many teams in the OUA, so they have to set the tone defensively early and maintain it.

Play tight defence on the perimeter not allowing space for Guelph’s guards to get any separation, play tough around the rim, set a physical tone and throw Guelph off rhythm so Windsor can operate through the chaos and win a tough physical game which they’ve done times before.

Windsor won’t have the edge in a game that’s a fast paced trading buckets style. For the Lancers to come away with the victory, it has to be much like their previous matchup offensively where they force fouls and get to the line, and defensively they have to be a pest and not make anything easy for the Gryphons offence.

The winner of this game will go on to play the Queen’s Gaels in Kingston, but first like their first matchup, they have to get through a gruelling first round. The battle of Windsor’s defence versus Guelph’s perimeter shooting may be what decides the game, as a team with great execution in the half court offensively plays host to a team with great half court defence.