Algoma basketball opens season with exhibition wins

The games got underway a little earlier than usual for the Algoma University men’s basketball team this season.

With the team not set to open regular season play until Nov. 5 against Lakehead but the program got its first game action in over the weekend with a pair of exhibition games against NCAA school Olivet College at the George Leach Centre.

Algoma scored a pair of exhibition victories over the Olivet, MI-based school in the first action of the season for both schools. Olivet is a Division III school that plays in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association.

On Friday night, Algoma beat Olivet 82-69 before capping off the weekend with a 90-70 victory on Saturday afternoon.

For Algoma, the games came on the heels of a short training camp.

“It was a quick turnaround,” Algoma Coach Thomas Cory said of the games. “We had four practices together. Now we have some film to evaluate and make some adjustments”

Elijah Butler led Algoma on Friday with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Adam Benrabah added 16 points and Taylor Smith also hit double digits with 11 points.

Eric Ewing led Olivet with 21 points in Friday’s loss.

On Saturday, five players had double digit point totals for Algoma. Benrabah and Brandon Dwyer led Algoma with 16 points each. Callum White added 12 points while Jake Clendinning and Reng Gum added 10 points each.

For Cory, the games gave the team a way to break up training camp.

“It’s fantastic,” Cory said. “Training camp does drag on for three of four weeks before you get a game in and now we can reel them back in a little bit and say ‘Hey, you’re not as good as you think you are and you’re not as bad as you think you are.’”

“They’ve trained all summer and worked all summer, to see their work instantly, some guys had great summers and it’s shown,” Cory added.

The coach added that there are some improvements to be made.

“We’ve got to become better defensively,” Cory said. “Offensively, we’re scoring a lot but turning over the ball, we’ve got to address that. We’re new and we’re not used to what (systems) we’re running.”

Algoma played the games without veteran guard Sean Clendinning, who sat out due to injury. Cory said it was an opportunity for other players to move into different roles early.

“It was good for other guys to be in that position early in the year,” Cory said.

After opening the regular season on the road at Lakehead in Thunder Bay, Algoma plays three games on the road before opening up the home portion of its schedule on Nov. 18 against Carleton.