Written by Charles Vanegas for On Point Basketball
(TORONTO, ON)—The Toronto Varsity Blues opened their home schedule Wednesday with a dominant 91-65 victory over the Waterloo Warriors at the Goldring Centre.
U of T fourth-year forward Devin Johnson (Ajax, Ont.), who had a game-high 26 points and 10 rebounds, led a squad that absolutely owned the battle of the glass — 56 rebounds to 33.
“They’re smaller than we are, so we just tried to pound them with our size, get ‘em on our backs and try to finish everything,” said Johnson, a second-team all-star in 2014-15. “We were able to move off the ball. They were switching a lot, so we went high-low a lot. It got us a lot of early touches, and we maintained it in the second half by rebounding.”
Devin Johnson Double-double 26pts 10rebs
Still stinging from an 85-84 loss to Ryerson, in which they blew an 8-point lead in the fourth quarter, the Varsity Blues (1-1) entered the game with something to prove.
“After that Ryerson game, we came in with a chip on our shoulder because we know we should have won… and I think we just left it all on the court tonight,” said first-year guard Devon Williams (Sharon, Mass.), who chipped in 11 pts and 5 assists off the bench.
The Warriors (0-3) struggled from all aspects, shooting just 37.6% from the floor (24-66) and 47.1% (8-17) from the free-throw line.
U of T duo Chris Barrett & Kwasi Oti-Awere swarm Waterloo’s Jon Ravenhorst
While a blowout win proves little in regards to the team’s status in the grand scheme of the OUA, the Blues look at their close crosstown clash last week as a sign of things to come, rather than an anomaly.
“I think we can definitely contend with the best, as we showed at Ryerson — they’re top five [in the country,]” said Williams.
Statistically, the Warriors were led by guards Jon Ravenhorst (19 pts, 5 reb), Ben Davis (11 pts, 10 reb) and Kristian Vande Kemp (14 pts, 3-7 from 3pt).
Forward Daniel Johansson (1st-year, Stockholm, Sweden) had 16 points and 6 rebounds for the Blues, while guard Sage Usher (2nd-year, Toronto) had 10 pts and 7 assists.
By Charles Vanegas (Twitter: @charlesvanegas, Instagram: @charlesvanegas)
Photos by Charles Vanegas
Edited by Drew Ebanks
