The Division One men’s Eagles White showed an offence that was below par on Tuesday night. With the talent on their bench, they should be able to perform much better than they did in their 72–58 loss to U of T Law in the second game of a men’s/women’s double-header.
At the beginning of the game, the Eagles couldn’t get going offensively. After two quick turnovers, coach Juan Nunez was forced to call a timeout. The timeout didn’t do much to improve their offence; they were too static with possession and ended up taking outside shots that weren’t close to falling.
U of T Law pulled in more rebounds, and were very effective in their post play and three-point shooting. They pulled ahead early and were leading the game 49–35 by half-time.
Nunez tried to rally his team for the second half, encouraging them to get loose and just run the plays. It seemed to work, because at the beginning of the second half the Eagles started driving to the rim.
Eagles guard Zak Khan’s strong effort led to more shots for his teammates. With good rebounding from their big men, forward Jeff Thorpe and centre Harris Nvrkanovic, the Eagles were able to come within 10 points of Law.
Another Eagles guard, Juan Ariado, went down with a wrist injury halfway through the second half and didn’t return. With 3:25 minutes left in the game, U of T Law turned up their interior defence, and UTM’s offence slowed down again. Thanks to their good post play, effective shooting under pressure, and quick free throws, Law ended the game on a 12–5 run.
Nunez commented on the game afterwards. “We need to get more rebounds, more energy on defence,” he said. “Our shots weren’t falling and we started going away from the plays, which led to turnovers.”
“I came to see the Whites play because I’ve heard so much about them, but they just didn’t seem to have it today,” said Ralph Johnson, a third-year sociology student and spectator.
There were obvious holes in the Eagles’ defence, which U of T Law took advantage of with their good passing. If the Eagles don’t take care of their defensive and offensive struggles, they won’t be able to do much more this season.
