Men’s basketball perfect on road swing

The men’s basketball team improved to 5-1 last weekend thanks to Mackenzie Simpson’s sharpshooting.

The Gaels topped the Brock Badgers 85-51 last Friday and beat the McMaster Marauders 77-73 on Saturday.

After a slow start against Brock, the Gaels were down 16-13 at the end of the first quarter, but roared back in the second, scoring 30 points to the Badgers’ seven. The deficit was too much for Brock to overcome.

Greg Faulkner led the Gaels, who shot an uncharacteristic 53.8 per cent (14/26) from beyond the arc, with a game-high 20 points. Simpson added 14 points and four three-pointers.

Saturday night’s matchup against McMaster was a back-and-forth affair, with 12 lead changes.

Sukhpreet Singh drained a game-high 22 points, and Simpson dialed in four more times from three-point range, finishing with 18 points on the night.

Faulkner recorded his third double-double of the season, pulling down 11 boards to go with his 15 points.

— Peter Reimer

Men’s hockey stumbles in Ottawa

A weekend road trip to the nation’s capital didn’t go as planned for the men’s hockey team.

Gaels forward Brendan MacDonald opened the scoring 14 seconds into Friday’s 2-1 loss to the Ottawa Gee-Gees. The game was tied late until Gee-Gees forward Mathieu Tangay-Theriault netted the game winner with 3:41 remaining in the third period.

Saturday’s afternoon tilt with the Carleton Ravens played out completely differently, but with the same results.

The Gaels’ usually rock solid goaltender Riley Whitlock was pulled after allowing three first period goals on 15 shots. Carleton would survive a late third period Gaels’ push to win 4-2.

Three straight losses have left the Gaels at 5-6-2 on the season. Their lack of scoring and dismal power play hurt the team again over the weekend, going 1 for 7 with the man advantage.

With two games remaining before the winter break, the Gaels will look to finish the first half of their season on a positive note.

They return home to face the Concordia Stingers tomorrow before facing the OUA East division-leading UQTR Patriotes on Saturday night.

— Josh Burton