The George Brown men's basketball team (8-1) closed out the first of half of their season with their seventh consecutive win over the Georgian Grizzlies (5-4) at home on Friday night (Dec 2) in front of a capacity crowd at the Casa Loma Athletic Centre.
HOW IT HAPPENED: On a night where George Brown's bench scored 52 points and had four players in double-figures, the Georgian Grizzlies knew they would have to play a near perfect game to earn a victory over the first-place Huskies.
In the first quarter, the Huskies offense was unrelenting, outscoring the Grizzlies 37-17, led by Caldre Campbell (4th Year) who had 11 points. Campbell went a perfect 4 for 4 from the field, 2 for 2 from the three-point line and 1 for 1 from the charity stripe, shooting a perfect 100% in just five minutes of play. The Grizzlies offense was led by Scarborough, Ontario native J'Avie Joseph who had eight points in 10 minutes.
In the second quarter, Huskies Jeremiah Brown (4th Year) picked up where Campbell left off, racking up ten points on 4 for 6 shooting from the field and 2 for 3 from the three-point line in just seven minutes of action. The Huskies entered half-time with a commanding 57-32 lead.
In the third quarter, the Grizzlies would mange to keep on pace with the Huskies scoring 22 points in the quarter, but couldn't close the gap with the Huskies would scoring 25 points of their own to take an 82-54 lead heading into the final quarter.
In the closing quarter, the Huskies would seal the game behind Naseem Barry who scored six points, along with Andre Barrow (Markham, ON) and Caldre Campbell (North York, ON) who had four points each. The home side would go on to claim their seventh straight victory by a final score of 100-69.
Caldre Campbell would finish the night with 22 points, nine rebounds, two assists and two steals to lead all scorers on the night. Three other Huskies would finish the game in double digits including Jeremiah Brown (Scarborough, ON) with 16 points, Naseem Barry with 15 points and Derrick Taylor (Toronto, ON) with 13 points.
Since the team's early season loss at the hands of the Durham Lords, the Huskies have been able to turn things around. Huskies assistant coach Marlon Greene is proud of how the team was able to refocus after that loss. "Everybody just got refocused. We didn't lose any games during our exhibition play; we won the Wayne Allison Bruins Bash tournament hosted by Sheridan College at the start of the season against one of the teams that was favoured to win it all. That [Durham] loss really got us back focused and pushed us through for the next games." He continued, "We started paying attention more to details, to our defensive coverages and as well as executing our offense much better."
Looking towards the second half of the season, keeping the team's focus is top priority. "As a coaching staff this is something we discuss everyday, to keep them focused and what we can do to keep them focused." Greene explained, "That's the biggest thing, they [the team] know they are good, we as a coaching staff know they are good, everybody in Ontario knows they are good, but we must keep them focused on one game at a time, one possession at a time. We never overlook the opponent ahead."
UP NEXT: The Huskies will open the second half of the season on the road against the Georgian Grizzlies on January 13, 2023 in Barrie, Ontario. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 pm. Can't make the game in person? Catch all the action live on our Huskies Livestream Channel!
