The Brock Badgers will go head to head with the Lakehead Thunderwolves in Round 1 of the OUA men's basketball playoffs at Bob Davis Gymnasium on Wednesday, Feb. 20.
Tipoff is 8 p.m. Get your tickets here.
Incidentally, the Badgers capped off the regular season with a back-to-back meeting with the Thunderwolves in Thunder Bay, which they split 1-1.
The Thunderwolves and Badgers are each 7-3 in their last 10 games.
"We're playing a team that's really hot right now. It's never easy to play a team for a third time in a row," said first-year head coach Madhav Trivedi. "They play really well in transition, so we'll look to slow them down and get them to play in the half court."
Brock finished second in the OUA West with a record of 16-8 to punch their ticket to the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season.
Meanwhile, Lakehead enters the post-season as the sixth seed, and hasn't won a game in St. Catharines since 2014.
"Offensively, we're going to get back to playing our tempo and our pace, so we have an opportunity to score a little bit more than we did the past couple of days up there in Lakehead," said Trivedi.
The Badgers are a strong home team and averaged 90.3 points per game at Bob Davis Gymnasium this season. The Thunderwolves averaged 77.7 ppg on the road.
Brock also averages more rebounds (46.2) and a higher field goal shooting percentage (47.4) at home than Lakehead.
Lakehead's defence will be busy handling Brock's bevy of scoring talent led by seniors SG Johneil Simpson and F Cassidy Ryan.
A dangerous shooter, Simpson is fourth in the OUA with 20.5 ppg and third in three-point shooting (42.2 per cent).
Ryan is Brock's dynamic forward, who can play anywhere on the court. He averages 18.3 ppg and 5.8 rebounds per game.
The 'Wolves will also have to contend with ball hawk Daniel Cayer, who is fifth in the league with 8.8 rebounds per game, and playmaking guard Tyler Brown (third in OUA with 5.2 assists).
Lakehead's leading scorer is Isaiah Traylor, who played Division 1 with Stephen F. Austin in Texas last season. He leads the team with 16.5 ppg, while forward Lock Lam leads the team with 6.6 rebounds.
"They're very dynamic, they can play big, they can play small," said Trivedi. "They've got a bunch of guys that can get into the paint and spread the floor around, so we'll have our work cut out for us on the defensive end. It will be our best against their best."
