The Wolves kicked off the 2nd half of the OCAA regular season on a high note on Wednesday January 12th. The team came away with a convincing 78-47 win against cross-town rival La Cité.
The Wolves got off to a hot start from behind the ARC. After a Nathan Garcia layup opened up the scoreboard for Algonquin, the Wolves got 3's from Garcia, Carter Normand and Topaz Kana to open up an 11-2 lead and force the Coyotes to take an early timeout with 6:47 to go. Coach Trevor Costello's team remained aggressive on both sides of the floor coming out of the timeout. Kana knocked down a deep 3 from the wing at the buzzer to extend the lead to 23-6 after the 1st frame. Garcia continued to lead the Wolves offensively finishing the opening frame with 9 points on 4/4 from the field.
The Wolves got off to a slow start in the 2nd quarter but exploded in the 2nd half of the frame finishing on a 25-14 run to take a 53-27 lead into halftime. The 2nd quarter was the CJ Gallaza show. The rookie guard shot 6/7 from the floor to finish the quarter with 15 points. Nathan Garcia also finished the half in double figures with 11 points.
La Cité came out energized to start the 2nd half. The Coyotes put together their best quarter of the game winning it 16-11 and cutting the Algonquin lead to 21 going into the final frame. The Wolves responded in the 4th. 3rd year forward Chris Lachapelle started it off with an individual 5-0 run. Algonquin also tightened the screws defensively giving up a season low 4 points in the quarter. 4 players finished in double figures for the Wolves. CJ Gallaza was the high point man with 19 points on 8/12 shooitng in 16 minutes of action. Nathan Garcia finished with 16 points on an efficient 7/9, he also added 4 rebounds and 5 assists. Chris Lachapelle was effective down low finishing with 10 points and 8 boards in 17 minutes of action. Last but not least, Ted Braden finished with another double double scoring 10 points and grabbing 11 boards.
The win means that the Wolves sweep the season series with the Coyotes, extended their OCAA win streak to 3 games, and improve their league record to 4-6. The team is back in action on Friday January 20th and Saturday January 21st on the road when they take on the Loyalist Lancers and the St. Lawrence Surge.
You can catch next weekend's games on OCAA LIVE.