Quick Thoughts on Dal vs. Ryerson

Dalhousie handed the Rams their first defeat at Coca-Cola Court since February 1st of 2014, in a 58–54 slog of a game with both team’s coming in on the second night of a back-to-back.

1.Coach Rana made one slight adjustment to his starting lineup tonight, inserting Keevon Small for Roshane Roberts to better matchup with the length of the Dalhousie front court.

2. Adam Voll looked great against Ryall Stroud in the 1st half, positioning himself extremely well, going up vertically to challenge and block a few shots and only conceding one put back layup.

3. Dal’s added length in Stroud and freshman Alex Carson on the wing is already paying dividends on defence. In a lineup with the regular starters of Kanza Mata, Lawrence and Stammberger, the Tigers were able to switch everything, keeping ball handlers out of the lane leading to a 16 point swing from the 6:56 mark to the 1:12 mark of the 2nd which sent Dal into the half with the lead.

4. Needing a jolt to end the 3rd quarter, Manny Diressa backed up the words of video co-ordinator Nooh Abdi, crossing up his defenders and knocking down two mid range jumpers cutting the lead to just three at 48–45. Manny finished with 18 points on 6 of 14 from the floor while adding 5 boards.

5. After substituting frequently throughout the first 3 quarters, Coach Rana stuck with the same lineup in crunch time going with Adika, Roshane, Manny, Keevon and Fil as a de-facto 5 for the final four minutes of game action.

6. As we all know these Rams love to shoot the 3 ball, and with under a minute to go they had not one but two clean looks to take the lead:

Unfortunate break with the two corner misses, but you’ll take two of your best shooters in the corner taking a shot for the lead going on in the season.

7. Following a stop, the Rams had one last chance to tie:

After waving off the screen from Fil, Adika (who was the only other Ram in double figures as he finished 7–14 for 16 points) nearly freed himself up on the baseline with the hesitation dribble, but the happy feet and length of Sven Stammberger on the closeout threw him off balance leading to the miss.

Kashrell Lawrence then missed both of his free throws but was able to snag his own rebound and lay it in to give Dalhousie the 4 point win.