Turnaround or teaser?
Not even University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds men's basketball coach Brent Baker can say for sure.
But the V-Reds are 2-0 on the season for the first time in a while, completing a season-opening sweep of the visiting Memorial Sea-Hawks of St. John's, NL with am 82-80 victory Sunday afternoon after a convincing 90-65 win Saturday night at the LB Gym.
That's two-thirds as many wins as they've achieved in each of the previous two seasons on Baker's watch, as many as they won all year the season before Baker took over.
Granted the wins are against Memorial, another program which has fallen on hard times over the past few seasons. But they're victories just the same.
"We had an opportunity against a team we're competitive with to get two wins," said Baker. "That's a step. It's just baby steps with these guys. In this league, we'll take the W's, that's all I'm going to say."
Meanwhile, the Varsity Reds women had to settle for a split against the Sea-Hawks. They won the opener 80-65 Saturday night but let a 15 point lead evaporate on their way to a 77-71 loss to the Sea-Hawks Sunday morning.
The V-Reds men nearly let it slip too. They parlayed a 48-36 halftime lead to a 20 point advantage, 56-36 in the first two minutes of the third quarter, forcing the Sea-Hawks to take a quick time out. Memorial outscored the V-Reds 21-5 over the remaining 8:05 of the quarter, trailing 62-57 after 30 minutes, and took their first lead a little more than four minutes later, seizing a 66-65 edge.
Enter - or rather re-enter - Will McFee. The Australian point guard, who serves as a spark for the squad, knocked down a key three-pointer from the corner to quickly restore the V-Reds lead.
Though the teams would trade it a couple of times down the stretch, Memorial was never able to get the lead past two points. And the teams were tied when Antoine Parks knocked down a key three with 1:01 left. Alex DesRoches built it to five with two more points - he finished with a team high 15 points and nine boards, most coming at key times, it seemed - and the V-Reds had their victory.
It might not have been that close had McFee played more than 20 minutes. But the dynamic guard had accumulated three fouls by the final minute of the first quarter, spent the second on the bench, and drew a fourth halfway through the third.
"He's that one player we haven't had here in a while that other teams are going to have a hard time guarding him," said Baker.
"He's had to battle some foul trouble. But once he gets in a groove, he's going to be a real good find for us. He's a big energy guy, no doubt about it. When we lose him, we lose the ability to attack the basket for sure, and you lose that spark that he gives. But he's still finding his way."
DesRoches, a seasoned veteran now in his fourth year, took off on a bit of a point run midway through the second quarter when the Sea-Hawks made a bit of a charge, getting back to within two.
Three consecutive DesRoches baskets underneath bumped the lead back to eight points and demonstrated that, while the V-Reds might bend this day, they would not break.
The Sea-Hawks didn't quit: trailing by 20, they might have folded their tent, but they worked hard to get back into it. Robbie Habib led the way with 22 points. Jason Shepherd finished with 16, 14 of them coming in the second half, and William Bradbury, listed at five-foot-ten -- perhaps when he's reaching for something on a high shelf -- finished with 14 points and three assists.
Saturday, Daniel Quiron led the V-Reds effort with 22 points, DesRoches had 17 and a dozen rebounds, and McPhee had 10 points and five boards as UNB stretched a four-point halftime lead to the final margin, outscoring the Sea-Hawks 53-32 in the final 20 minutes. Memorial got 11 points from Mark Woodland and 10 from each of Jason Shepherd, Matthew Clearly and Mike Helsby.