REDS Earn Road Split

(HALIFAX, NS) Brandon Laryea’s (Crawley, UK) rim-rocking, gravity-defying baseline jam was the exclamation point on the UNB REDS’ Saturday road win against the Dalhousie Tigers in Atlantic University Sport men’s basketball.

Hungry for a win after losing in overtime the night before, Laryea exploded for a U SPORTS career-high 28 points, leading UNB to the dominant 89-64 win.

"He was all over the place on both ends of the floor, creating havoc everywhere, which is what Brandon does best,” said REDS’ head coach Joe Salerno. “He has come such a long way over his four years here, it was great to see him have such a career day."

The fourth-year forward rounded out his stat line with seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block.

Mark Tobin (Mount Pearl, NL) hit two three-pointers and was perfect from the free throw line on the way to 14 points, and the REDS as a whole shot 94.1% on free throws.

Eden Otshudi (Hamilton, ON) and Conner Landell (St. Catharines, ON) were the other REDS in double digits.

UNB’s defence was formidable on Saturday, forcing 19 Dal turnovers.

"I was proud of the way our guys bounced back on Saturday, after the heartbreaking loss Friday,” said Coach Salerno. “This was one of the most complete games we have played this season, so it's really something we need to build off."

In the 65-64 overtime loss on Friday, Otshudi caught fire in the fourth quarter, scoring six points in the final two minutes of regulation, including the overtime-forcing layup with only ten seconds to go.

The Tigers eeked it out in overtime, behind four points from forward Jayden Parker (Milton, ON).

Matthias Muscroft (Sussex, NB) was also effective on Friday, with 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting from the field.

"With as competitive as the AUS is once again this year, we will always take a split on the road, however we really had our sights set on coming back with two wins,” said Coach Salerno. “We felt this was a weekend we could have made a bit of a move in the standings, so there is still plenty of work to do. This has set up a couple of very big games with Memorial this coming weekend at the Currie Center."

Dalhousie, now 4-10 and last in AUS, hosts Acadia on Wednesday in a midweek clash.

UNB, 6-8 on the season, hosts 8-6 Memorial this weekend, in two games that will be crucial for AUS playoff seeding.

Tip-off is set for 8:00pm on Friday and 4:00pm on Saturday.

The games will be part of UNB’s Stewart-McKelvey Think Pink Week.

WEEKEND RECAP BY: Peter Jewett/UNB Athletics

PHOTOS BY: Nick Pearce/for Dal Athletics