HAMILTON, Ont. – Wednesday night in Hamilton, the Guelph Gryphons men's basketball team saw their 2018-19 season officially come to an end following a hard-fought, 78-75 road loss to the McMaster Marauders in an OUA West Quarter-final matchup. McMaster opened the game on a 13-0 run and narrowly withstood a spirited U of G comeback, which saw the Gryphons trim the deficit to just two points with a minute remaining in regulation.
 
Gryphons fourth-year guard Tommy Yanchus, who scored 10 of his 18 points in the final quarter, connected from beyond the arc with 1:00 remaining in the 4th quarter to make it a 76-73 game. It would prove to be as close as the Gryphons would get, however, with Malcolm Glanville's desperation three at the buzzer falling off the mark to give McMaster the 78-75 victory.
 
Throughout the regular season, no team in the OUA got to the free throw line more than the Gryphons (407 times). And on Wednesday night, the Gryphons once again were able to consistently get to the charity stripe (33 free throw attempts) but were undone by an off night from the line, missing 14 free throws (19-of-33). The 57.6% mark from the free throw line was well below the team's regular season average of 71.2%.
 
Points were hard to come by at both ends of the floor on Wednesday night at Burridge Gymnasium, with both teams shooting similar percentages from the floor (Guelph 33%, McMaster 37%) and from beyond (Guelph 21%, McMaster 20%). It should come as no surprise perhaps that so little separated the two teams after both Guelph and McMaster finished the regular season with identical 11-13 records, including a split of their head-to-head matchups. In the end, the slow start from the visiting Gryphons would prove to be too much to overcome, in a game that signaled Guelph's first return to the OUA playoffs since 2014-15.
 
Tommy Yanchus and Malcolm Glanville each finished the night with 18 points to lead the way for the Gryphons. Third-year forward Banky Alade, who finished the regular season as the leading rebounder in the country with an average of 11.1 rebounds per game, was his usual self on the glass, racking up 15 boards to go along with 10 points. Third-year guar Aaron Nugent also filled the stat sheet, finishing the night with 13 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists.
 
McMaster received balanced scoring, with six different players reaching double figures, led by David McCulloch and Damiann Prehay who each finished with 13 points. The Marauders advance to the second round of playoffs and will now head to Waterloo on Saturday to face the OUA West-leading Laurier Golden Hawks.
 
Gryphon Take 
"Our guys showed a lot of character tonight and kept fighting in a game where our shots weren't falling and where we were in a hole early. We found a way to claw back and keep ourselves in the game, but in the end it wasn't our night. Mac put a lot of ball pressure on us, which I thought the guys handled pretty well with just 12 turnovers on the night. But too many misses at the free throw line and failing to convert on some good looks in the paint hurt us.
 
We talked about the growth this group had over the course of the season. Winning five more league games than we did a year ago is a significant accomplishment considering how young we are as a team. All of the players on our roster are set to return next season, so this loss will only make us stronger and provide us with the motivation and confidence we need to get to where we want to go in the future." – Gryphons head coach Chris O'Rourke