The George Brown Huskies men's basketball team dominated in the season finale defeating the Georgian Grizzlies 97-77 at Casa Loma Athletic Centre on Friday night.
Notable Stats: 13 different Huskies recorded a basket in the victory in front of their home crowd. First-year forward Naseem Berry led the charge with a game-high 15 points and six rebounds.
Guard Robert Ocampo dropped 13 points, while Christian Tabiri filled the stat sheet with 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists in the victory.
Before the game, the Huskies honoured six graduating players in Kingslee, Tabiri, Chris Fields, Haany Ahmed, Khadarr Gaal and Larry Filipopoulos. First-year head coach Jason Dawkins believes they were a critical part in creating a new culture.
"We are starting to build our culture from the academic piece to the court. It shows the community, the school and the players they can finish their courses and have a place to play at a high level," Jason said. "Future players will know they can go to school here, graduate, play here and be a Husky forever. Those players helped start this."
How It Happened: After honouring six graduating athletes before the game, the Huskies took it to the Grizzlies. They shot over 70% from the field to outscore their opponents 31-12 in the opening quarter. They used that cushion to take a 56-34 lead into the locker room. The Grizzlies attempted to climb back in the second half, but it was too much to overcome.
The Huskies clinched first place in the East division with 17-3 record. They will host a first-round playoff crossover next week.
Veteran forward D'Silva thinks the team needs to play at their elite level no matter who they play.
"We've beaten a lot of teams and definitely had our victories, but we have to remember who we are. If we remember we're a great team and don't play down to any competition, we can power through," the forward explained. "I hope our experience this season will help us in the playoffs. I think we are ready to roll."
Coach Dawkins wants his guys to continue what they have been doing so far, but understand the real season starts next week.
"The mental side is what we need. The regular season means nothing now, since its do or die. We need to bring that energy, confidence and swagger that we are in first place, but not let it get to our heads because we have a lot of work to do, the coach stated. "Our goal is to get somewhere and right now we are on the first stage of that path. We are looking forward to having great energy, great effort, guys playing their role, buying into the culture and playing hard next week."
Up Next: The Huskies will host a first-round crossover playoff game on Saturday, February 29th. Stay tuned to find out George Brown's opponent and the details.
2019-2020 Men's Basketball Graduating Student-Athletes