Men’s Basketball News

Men’s Basketball

Athletes of the Week: Laurentian’s Gray, Victoria’s Giannattasio honoured

U SPORTS Staff

Kadre Gray of the Laurentian Voyageurs and Amira Giannattasio from the Victoria Vikes are the U SPORTS Male and Female Athletes of the Week for the period ending November 4, 2018.

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Gray has picked up right where he left off last year, and after taking home just about every piece of hardware in the country last season, he has kicked off his 2018-19 campaign with the U SPORTS Male Athlete of the Week award. In Laurentian’s first action of the season, the third-year guard anchored an impressive pair of wins, and in typical fashion, stuffed the stat sheet to do so. In his 2018 debut against the Nipissing Lakers – which comes after missing the end of the previous season due to injury – Gray racked up a triple-double performance of 32 points, 11 rebounds, and 13 assists, all while shooting above 50 per cent from the field (10-for-18). For an encore performance, the reigning U SPORTS Player of the Year and BLG Male Athlete of the Year outdid even his best, setting a new career-high in points. Gray poured in 48 points (13-for-23 FG) against the Lakehead Thunderwolves, adding on another nine rebounds and five assists as well. Gray’s lofty start already has him leading the country in scoring with 40 PPG, to go along with a second-best in assists per contest with nine.

Despite a loss to UBC on Nov.1, Giannattasio's 44-point effort lifted her in both the school and conference record books. Giannattasio finished the night with 44 points, five rebounds, four steals and put up four three-pointers to break a 40-year-old school record for most points scored in a game. Victoria's Carol Turney-Loos held the record of 42 points, the fifth-highest in Canada West, from a game in 1978 against Saskatchewan. Giannattasio's total bumps her into fourth in the conference for most points in a game, with Calgary's Meagan Koch holding the record with 49 points from a game in 1996. She is currently sitting tied for fourth in the country with most points per game with 24.8. The Ontario native followed up her Thursday night performance with 16 points, four rebounds, three assists and a steal to help the Vikes defeat the UBC Thunderbirds 72-65 on Saturday.

Male nominees: 

  • CW: Victory Shumbusho, soccer, UBC
  • OUA: Kadre Gray, basketball, Laurentian (winner)
  • RSEQ:  Frédéric Lajoie-Gravelle, soccer, Montreal
  • AUS: Cory Bent, soccer, Cape Breton 

Female nominees:

  • CW: Amira Giannattasio, basketball, Victoria (winner)
  • OUA: Chiara Da Silva, volleyball, York
  • RSEQ: Catherine Proulx, soccer, Montreal
  • AUS: Olivia DeMerchant, rugby, StFX