Wolves’ stellar defence leads to dominance over cross-city rivals
The Wolves men’s basketball team came out swinging against La Cité Coyotes on Dec. 1, scoring a 90-65 win after enduring a heartbreaking loss against their Ottawa rivals last month.
“That last game really took a piece out of us,” said Wolves guard Riley Partington about their Nov. 10 loss to La Cité. “Coming back we were just like, we gotta get them this time.”
And the Wolves sure did.
They beat La Cité by 25 points in the Dec. 1 rematch, their second-biggest winning margin of the season.
“We came into this game knowing it was a must-win game because we’ve been on a little bit of a losing streak,” said Wolves guard Eddie Laurent.
The Wolves’ win mostly came from their two biggest runs in the first and fourth quarters.
La Cité came out strong midway through the first quarter and took a 17-11 lead over the Wolves. But the Wolves didn’t take long to get going. Algonquin went on an 18-2 run late in the first to take a commanding 29-19 lead into the second quarter.
The Wolves continued their hot streak early in the second quarter. They went on a 6-0 run out of the gate, extending their lead to 16 points and their run to 24-2.
The fourth quarter was also all Wolves. They played lockdown defence and held La Cité to only five points, outscoring them 21-5.
“We’ve been working all week on D, preaching D, preaching rebounds,” said Wolves head coach Trevor Costello. “Guys were dogs and they played hard.”
The Wolves struggled midway through the game and allowed La Cité back into it with only a six-point lead at the half. La Cité outscored the Wolves in the second quarter 23-19 despite the Wolves coming out hot.
“It’s the veteran guys on our team. We have guys like Simon (Desta), CJ (Gallaza)., Carter (Normand). All of those guys, they are talking to us. They are keeping our heads on straight. They are letting us know we still have this game,” said Laurent.
The Wolves also beat La Cité in shooting percentage. They shot an efficient 44.4 per cent from three, compared to La Cité’s 18.8 per cent. The Wolves also shot nine points higher from the field, at 46.9 per cent.
The Wolves are done for the 2023 portion of their schedule. They will be back in action at home after the new year on Jan. 12 at 8 p.m.
“We have a month after this and we are happy we got to come out with a W. It’s a great feeling,” said Partington.
