Unable to find consistency

The Golden Hawks men’s basketball team did their playoff aspirations no favours by dropping two games over the past week.

While the team still holds a one-game lead over the rival Waterloo Warriors, back-to-back losses to the Western Mustangs and Windsor Lancers means the Laurier team has a little less breathing room than at this time last week.

Wednesday night saw the Golden Hawks play in front of a packed gym on Winter Carnival night. Perhaps buoyed by the energy of their audience, the home team raced out to a lead in the first quarter and held a 36-28 advantage over the Mustangs at halftime.

“When I first stepped in the gym I didn’t expect this many people,” said fifth-year forward Kyrie Coleman.

“The environment was crazy. I hope we get many fans like this out to games, to make the environment better for us, to give us more intensity.”

However the second half proved to be a different story.

The Western offense rallied behind 25 points from forward Greg Morrow to rediscover their offensive confidence that had eluded them in the first two quarters.With the Golden Hawks in foul trouble, the team struggled to restrict the Mustangs’ access to the paint. What was once an eight-point Golden Hawk cushion dissipated and Western cruised to a 75-69 win.

“I thought we played hard enough to win lots of the 40 minutes, but we didn’t play hard enough to win for [all] 40 minutes,” said coach Peter Campbell.

A bright spot on the evening was Coleman’s performance. The Laurier forward tallied 15 points on 7-9 shooting.

“The last two or three games I haven’t been playing well and I felt like I needed to come out this game and make a statement to bring these guys together, to give us a chance,” said the fourth-year.

“I’m a leader on this team, and I can’t get in foul trouble. I’ve got to put this on me. It is what it is you know, we’ve just got to regroup and go to the next game.”

The week’s second loss came when the Golden Hawks hit the road to face against the Windsor Lancers.

“We did everything right to be ready to play, but we weren’t ready to play, and Windsor blitzed us pretty well right off the bat,” said Campbell.

“The things that have been hurting us were evident right from the start.”

The Golden Hawks were outscored 54-34 in the first half. Eleven Golden Hawks saw minutes during the half as Peter Campbell tried to throw together a group of players that would produce.

The halftime intermission seemed to allow Laurier to regroup, as the team came out hot in the third quarter. Despite the daunting Windsor lead, Laurier went on a run, scoring 53 second half points in a fervent effort to make a game of it.

Captain and fourth-year guard, Will Coulthard led the offensive attack, scoring 23 points on 9-19 shooting, and freshman Luke Allin chipped in with 12.In the end, time was not on the Golden Hawks’ side, as the clock ran out on a promising comeback effort with the score 94-87.

“We played eleven guys by halftime trying to find somebody that could get us going a little bit,” said Campbell.

“And then for whatever reason, after we talked at halftime, a different team came out, and we dominated the game for the second half. And you’re like ‘well that makes no sense.’”

Despite their recent struggles, the veteran coach knows what his team needs to do to round into form.

“We’ve got to make better decisions, we’ve got to read the scouting report, because nobody beat us doing anything that wasn’t on the scouting report and we weren’t talking that away,” he said. “Our effort has to get greater and we have to play with the courage to do what we’re capable of doing.”

The 4-7 Golden Hawks are back in action when they visit Brock this weekend.