Menā??s basketball sweep opening weekend

Since the 2006-07 season, the Varsity Reds and Memorial Sea-Hawks have been anchored to the bottom of the AUS men’s basketball standings.

If either was to end its four-year playoff drought this season, an opening weekend sweep of the other would be essential to grabbing one of the six playoff tickets.

The V-Reds did just this, but it wasn’t easy.

After taking a slim 37-33 lead to the half on Saturday, UNB took over the second half, rounding out a 90-65 victory.

The second game of the doubleheader had a similar look at halftime, but Memorial didn’t go away.

The Sea-Hawks cut the Reds halftime lead of 12 to five by the start of the third quarter.

With 53 seconds left in the game and the Reds holding a two-point lead, UNB guard Antwann Parks nailed a clutch three late in the shot clock to give the Reds the lead that wouldn’t vanish. Alex DesRoches’ layup on the next possession clinched an 82-80 win.

“I was open for the shot,” said Parks. “I knew if I made it, it was gonna put us ahead by five. So I just let it go. I actually got hit on the head, but my concentration was there and I just made the shot.”

UNB head coach Brent Baker said that at times in the first half Parks was overcomplicating the game and was trying to do too much. The fact that he hit such a huge shot was not a shock to the coach.

“When we’ve had some wins here, he’s hit some big shots down the stretch of games before,” said Baker of Parks. “So that’s not new for him.”

“[Jason] Sheppard hadn’t shot all first half and he got hot and Antwann had guarded him better over in Newfoundland last year and he says, ‘Can I guard him?’ And I said, ‘Yep, let’s go.’ When he gets engaged defensively he tends to do a lot better on offense.”

Baker credits Memorial for getting back into the game, but is happy that his team fought off the complacency that may have set in during the game.

“It wasn’t that we weren’t getting good shots or good attempts or not executing,” said Baker. “It is just that we weren’t converting and that’s the toughest thing to watch because it starts building and that snowballs on guys.”

“The one thing that we take from it is this team made a step today and that step is that we fought that complacency.”

Baker knows that if the V-Reds are to clinch their first playoff appearance with him as coach of the team and the program’s first since 2006, these two wins were essential.

“It’s big in this league,” said Baker. “We haven’t made hay here and we had an opportunity against a team that we’re competitive with to get two wins. And that’s a step.”

Parks echoed Baker’s sentiment.

“It’s very important because it’s a tough league,” said Parks. “The AUS the last two years it had two teams go to nationals, so this is a tough league. And if we get a good start we have a chance to make the playoffs this year.”

UNB travels to Charlottetown for its first road games of the conference season against UPEI. The Panthers lost its first game of the year at Dalhousie 85-68, after getting its first scheduled game at Acadia postponed.

This is another good test for the Reds to see where they stack up in the AUS. UPEI grabbed the last playoff spot last season, but still only won four games. Baker knows it’s another huge weekend for his team.

“We want to go over there and do a good job next weekend. It’s just baby steps with these guys.