TORONTO – The fourth-ranked Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men's basketball team hammered the Waterloo Warriors in a one-sided 85-35 affair on Saturday to nab their season-high sixth-consecutive victory and eighth of the season.
TMU's defence was exceptional in the rout, holding Waterloo to 35 points, their lowest nightly total as a unit since 2015, while Gabriel Gutsmore, Aidan Wilson and Aaron Rhooms all nabbed double-digit point totals well before the end of the third quarter.
"They were exceptional tonight with their energy," said head coach of the Bold David DeAveiro following the game. "They followed the scout really really well."
Rhooms paced the Bold's red-hot attacking corps in the lopsided win, pairing his 21 points with 10 rebounds to cap off his third double-double performance of the month.
TMU stifled the visiting Warriors right off the hop in Saturday's evening affair, quickly vaulting their offence into high gear to take a commanding 22-4 lead into the second quarter.
Gutsmore generated the bulk of TMU's offence on the fast-break, forcing the Warriors into a pair of turnovers before landing just as many layups only 17 seconds apart from one another.
The Bold made a habit of turning their defence into offence throughout the opening frame, scoring more than half of their points off Waterloo's turnovers while keeping the mesh of their own net clean in the process.
Defence, which has undertaken top priority for DeAveiro's side all throughout the fall semester, pinned Waterloo into a scoring drought of over seven minutes as the visitors disgruntledly watched the number '4' burn into their side of the scoreboard.
"That's hard to do at this level," praised DeAveiro of his side's ability to hold the Warriors to only two successful scoring chances in the opening quarter.
"A lot of that was because of our energy. Not many teams have done that or can do that, so that's something our guys can hang on their hats," he added.
Isaih McRae finally bumped his team's slump 1:08 into the middle frame with a successful three-point attempt to cut TMU's lead to 19.
His heroics did little to throw off the Bold or aid Waterloo's struggling attacking throughout the remainder of the game as the Warriors landed a season-worst 11 shots on 60 attempts from the field.
Meanwhile, the Bold finished their dominant night shooting 50 percent from the field while stringing together six successful shots from beyond the arc on their nine attempts. The Bold will look to carry the momentum from their vicious win into next weekend when they take on the Ottawa Gee-Gees ahead of the holiday break.
A second blowout in as many weeks has the potential to vault the Bold higher in the U SPORTS national rankings before the winter break, and cap off a memorable fall semester for the Toronto side.
Tip-off against the Gee Gee's is set for next Saturday at 4 p.m. Students can attend all TMU home games for free with their OneCard.
