WEEKEND RECAP: #5 Gee-Gees earn key home wins over Western, Windsor

The Gee-Gees men's basketball team earned two key wins over strong OUA West competition, defeating Western and Windsor at Montpetit Hall on Friday and Saturday night.

On Friday, Ottawa downed the then 4-2 Mustangs by a final score of 98-78, while on Saturday, the Gee-Gees were victorious 74-66 against a Lancers team that was 6-0 prior to the weekend.

Despite a slow start for Ottawa on Friday against Western, the Gee-Gees scored 30 points in the second quarter to take a 49-42 lead into halftime. Paced by the hot hand of Guillaume Pépin, the Gee-Gees pulled away in the fourth quarter to secure the 20-point win. 

Pepin led the way for Ottawa with 21 points, to go along with five rebounds and three assists. Cole Newton had 19 points, hitting five three-pointers, and added six assists in the win. Brock Newton had 17 points and was a thorn in the side of the Mustang bigs all night. Freshman Liban Abdalla set a new season-high with 12 points and four rebounds. 

On Saturday, the Gee-Gees received a Lancers team hungry to bounce back from their first loss of the season suffered at the hands of Carleton on Friday night. 

The Gee-Gees came out strong, establishing control over the paint and limiting National Player of the Year candidate Thomas Kennedy close to the basket. A somewhat comfortable first half was erased by the Lancers in the third quarter, as they rallied to recapture the lead. 

It was once again Pépin who drove the Ottawa attack, putting up 16 second half points to hand the Gee-Gees the win.

Pépin set a new career-high in scoring with 27 points and added 10 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal. After the weekend, Pépin moves to 14^th in program history in scoring, passing long-time Gee-Gees assistant coach Clarence Porter.

In the paint, Josh Inkumsah finished with 10 points and 12 rebounds, as well as four steals. Brock Newton added 12 points, six rebounds and two blocks, while his brother Cole added 10 points, seven assists and five rebounds in a well-rounded outing. 

The Gee-Gees outrebounded one of the nation's best team on the boards by a 52-35 margin, while holding Kennedy well below his average in points and rebounds. 

"After the tough game against Lakehead, we needed to bounce back and that's exactly what we did today and yesterday," said Pépin. "Today, we stuck to our gameplan and finished off a tough win."

With the wins, Ottawa improves to 6-1 on the OUA regular season heading into a final weekend before the holiday and exam break.

"This weekend was huge," said Gee-Gees head coach James Derouin. "Western is one of the best offensive teams in the country, with a zone defence that you don't see very often, and then Windsor a tough and physical team with Kennedy, who's a National Player of the Year contender."

"We had our moments tonight, but I'm really proud of how the guys fought through it, they got the stops and the tough rebounds when they needed it. That's how these games go against really tough teams."

The Gee-Gees will host Algoma at Montpetit Hall on Friday (Dec. 2) at 8 p.m. before taking to the road for a Sunday matchup with Brock in St. Catharines. Tickets for Friday's game are available at tickets.geegees.ca and both games will be streaming live on OUA.tv