TORONTO - The Ryerson men's basketball team is looking to finish off the first half of the season strong, going up against the Toronto Varsity Blues this Wednesday and the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks this Saturday.
The Rams currently hold a 4-4 record and will be playing two teams who are below .500 so far this season. Ryerson has not yet lost to a team without a winning record, and they will look to keep that streak going in the upcoming week.
Wednesday's opponents, the Toronto Varsity Blues, will be visiting Coca-Cola court in the "Battle for the 6ix" that Ryerson is hosting. Having been a one-sided affair in the past, the Rams' recent struggles hint to a much more competitive game this time around. Having defeated the Blues in 13 straight matchups, the Rams will look to bounce back from their recent loss to the Queen's Gaels (82-73) and secure a victory against Toronto to get back to a winning record.
Saturday's matchup will be a showdown between two of the OUA's top three leading scorers, Rams guard
Tevaun Kokko (Markham, Ont.) and Golden Hawk guard Ali Sow, who are averaging 23 and 22.8 points per game, respectively.
The Golden Hawks have now lost three straight games and face a difficult Western Mustangs team on Wednesday. The Hawks will also be looking to finish off their season on a positive note, but only one team will avoid going into the mid-season break with a loss on their minds.
The Rams will be looking for
Tanor Ngom (Dakar, Senegal) to give significant contributions this week, now going into his third and fourth game since his return from an injury that kept him out for the first six games of the season.
With the Rams having two of the top five scorers in the OUA (Kokko and
Jayden Frederick (Scarborough, Ont.)), the team will be looking for more offence generated from the bench, since the bench only contributed to 11 points in their last game.
Saturday will mark the return of Kokko to Laurier where he spent the first two years of his OUA career.
Wednesday's game will be at Coca-Cola Court at 8:00 p.m. and Saturday's will be at the Athletic Complex in Waterloo starting at 3:00 p.m. Both games will be available to stream on OUA.tv.
