Rams Basketball is Back! The OUA Title Defence begins at Laurier
The Rams take the court in an OUA contest for the first time in 238 days on Saturday night, as they take to the road to begin their league title defence in Waterloo against the Laurier Golden Hawks.
Laurier will be without the legendary Peter Campbell patrolling the sidelines for the 1st time since 2000, as it will be the first official game for Justin Serresse as the Head man of the Golden Hawks after spending the past five seasons as James Derouin’s 2nd in command at Ottawa.
Last season these two teams hooked up at Coca-Cola Court, with the Rams cruising to 105–82 behind 30 points from Aaron Best.
Both teams have a much different look this season, of course Aaron Best has moved on to Lithuania as the Rams hand the keys over to Adika Peter-McNeilly as the go-to guy while also implementing new pieces off the bench. Laurier only returns two contributors from last season’s rotation while Serresse added five freshmen in his first recruiting class.
Leading the way for Laurier will be 5th year senior Matt Chesson and a freshman by the name of Tevaun Kokko, who Rams fans might remember from the not so distant past…
Kokko spent last preseason with the Rams and has resurfaced as the floor general for Laurier. Kokko turned heads this preseason highlighted by his double-double of 25 points and 10 assists against Winnipeg on October 8th.
The task of guarding Kokko will most likely be split between either Peter-McNeilly or Roshane Roberts, and Junior Myles Charvis who slots in as the leader of the 2nd unit.
Charvis is playing his first OUA game in nearly two years after sitting out last season while completing a transfer from Waterloo after a rookie season in which he scored 20.3 PPG in 2014–15.
“We never got a win while I was at Waterloo in that gym, so I’m really ready to go tomorrow night, I’m like a caged animal waiting to get out there” said Charvis at practice on Friday afternoon. “I’m gonna look to get other guys involved, as the point guard I know when I can get my own shot, so I’m gonna be trying to get the other guys involved early when i’m out there.”
With Laurier not having a ton of size on the roster, look for the Rams to pound it down low to Adam Voll and Juwon Grannum early to try and get the big men rolling while creating space for the shooters on the perimeter.
Defensively it will be interesting to see how much Coach Rana unleashes the full court press this team used as their swing factor in games last year due to their advantage in athleticism, which has only increased this season.
Tip time is at 8 pm on OUA TV.
