AUS Men's Basketball

Jan. 30 – Memorial 90 – UNB 108

Jan. 31 – Memorial 79 – UNB 110

Saturday, January 30, 2016 – Varsity Reds offense too much for Sea-Hawks to handle

(FREDERICTON, NB) Matt Daley wasn't the leading scorer, but he was the spark that ignited the UNB Varsity Reds.

Daley scored early and often, including four long-range threes, as UNB downed the visiting Memorial Sea-Hawks 108-90.

"That's just seeing my shots and shooting them when they're there, because Javon everybody's going to be double-teaming him and we've got shooters all around the key, so whoever is open has got to shoot the ball and have confidence."

Javon Masters scored a game-high 34 points to lead the Varsity Reds and Mark Matheson collected 11 rebounds.

Vasilije Curcic scored 30 points and had 10 rebounds in the Sea-Hawks loss.

The win improves UNB's record to 7-and-6, good for a share of third place in the AUS standings.

Memorial drops to 5-and-8.

The UNB win comes in the wake of last week's road loss to UPEI.

Daley says they need to finish the regular season strong. "This is the crunch time, the playoffs are coming up and we need these wins hard."

Sea-Hawks head coach Peter Benoite says they tried to take away the Varsity Reds transition game. "We were somewhat successful, but then we forgot to play half-court defence."

"They shot the ball very well. When they're gunning from three, they're a very tough team."

The Varsity Reds and Sea-Hawks play the second of two weekend games, Sunday afternoon.

"Hopefully, they don't shoot as well," says Benoite.

(Source UNB Athletics)

Sunday, January 31, 2016 – Varsity Reds score big win over Sea-Hawks

(FREDERICTON, NB) Javon Masters has a number of supporting cast members.On Sunday, in a 110-79 win over the Memorial Sea-Hawks, Jesse Kendall stepped into the role.

Kendall was 10-for-15 from the field, including four threes. He also made all five free throws, scoring 29 points.

Masters, meanwhile, scored a game-high 35 and grabbed 8 rebounds.

"Jesse got off to a very good start for us," said Masters.

In fact, Kendall scored 11 of UNB's first 13 points.

"He shot the ball extremely well and that really opened up the floor for everybody else, so I was able to attack and get to the basket and finish."

The win was the second in as many days for the Varsity Reds over the Sea-Hawks and saw ten of the eleven Varsity Reds hit the score-sheet.

Vasilije Curcic paced the Memorial attack. He scored 21 points and had 9 rebounds. Caleb Gould scored 20 and grabbed 11 rebounds.

"MUN's a very good team," said Masters. "The score may be deceiving, but we actually had to work very hard for this game. Defensively, we played pretty well. There were some lapses and we can't afford those coming down the stretch."

Masters played only 28 minutes, well below his average. Fellow starters Matt Daley and Mark Matheson logged 17 and 16 respectively, as head coach Brent Baker tried to balance playing time.

"We're on practice about 51 here and when you're not getting a lot of minutes, it's nice to get reported and get a chance to play," said Baker.

With the win, the Varsity Reds improve to 8-and-6 and are now alone in third place in the AUS standings, just six points back of league-leading Dalhousie.

Masters' 35 point afternoon improved his points per game average to 26.8, tops in the CIS. He's almost a full point a game better than UPEI's Tyler Scott, who averages 25.7. Calgary's Thomas Cooper is next, at 24.9 points per game.

"He's usually pretty good about the shots he takes," said Coach Baker. "When he gets in the open court, I mean, I'd hate to be the other coach… to have to deal with that."

Memorial returns home next weekend to welcome the first place Dalhousie Tigers into town.

(Source UNB Athletics)