The Providence Pilots men’s basketball team had a tremendous weekend with wins against the Millar College of the Bible (82–53), Canadian Mennonite University (86–81), and Université de Saint-Boniface (89–58).

Of the team’s game against Millar, head coach Pierre Dubreuil says, “We have been battling many injuries early this season, so having an exhibition game so late was nice to give the guys more time to readjust their game. It was a solid collective performance, with five guys scoring double digits that night for the win.”

The Pilots’ next two matchups had some members of the team posting especially outstanding performances. In the game against CMU, the men were inspired by the 11 points of Rhys Maestre in just 12 minutes before he got injured.

“Our guys played hard and gave back every punch thrown at them,” says Dubreuil. “Led by an incredible duo of Riley Paul and Nate Ens, we kept pushing and took a sufficient six-point lead to win the game.”

Paul scored 25 points and had 13 rebounds. Ens posted similar numbers, with 22 points and 12 rebounds.

“To end the weekend, we faced the Universite de Saint-Boniface for the first time this season,” Dubreuil says. “The strength of our team is to have offensive threats all around the court. Blake Garing went off to a career-high 19 points, shooting five of nine from the perimeter, supported by the three-for-three from downtown of Joshua Lamoureux. Inside, a combined 34 points by Ens, Paul, and rookie Emmanuel Oleko did the trick to score 89 while only giving 58.”

The Pilots will now turn their attention to their final American road trip of 2022.

The women’s basketball team had a busy week with three games in three days. The Pilots defeated Millar College of the Bible 89–33, then lost to CMU 80–93 and pulled out another victory against Les Rouges with a final score of 102–38.

Joel Coursey, the team’s coach, believes that the team’s offence has found a solid rhythm, with them averaging 90 points over the three games.

“I am starting to see some first-year players become comfortable playing college basketball and our veterans are settling into the new system,” says Coursey. “It has been interesting to see the disbursement of our scoring. It seems that everyone scores on most nights, [so] we typically see a number of players hit low double digits, but no major standouts. This should make us hard to key in on.”

The Pilots head back out on the road this weekend to face Free Lutheran Bible College and Seminary in Plymouth, Minnesota before heading to Iowa for games against Emmaus Bible College and Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary.

Coursey is confident that his team is ready. “We have found ourselves playing in three tripleheader weekends this semester, which has allowed us to really test the endurance of our system. We have found that we are physically prepared for a three-game playoff weekend.”

Meanwhile, the Providence Pilots women’s volleyball team faced Les Rouges on November 25–26 and ended the weekend with a win and a loss. They lost their first match 1–3, but pulled off a 3–1 win the next day.

According to head coach Kyle Guenther, the doubleheader was much anticipated, as Les Rouges are the top-ranked team in the conference.

“The first match on Friday was great for about two and a half sets, and then we seemed to run out of steam,” says Guenther. “We looked a bit tired and couldn’t execute in the second half of the match. Saturday, in front of a great crowd of alumni, we were able to flip the script and pull off the biggest win of the year so far. We had to dig extremely deep and work incredibly hard for so many points, but our team never gave up and kept the fight going until the finish. To give the league leaders their first loss of the season will certainly give our team a boost in confidence moving forward.”

The men’s volleyball team also faced Les Rouges and pulled off a pair of victories. The Pilots beat them 3–0 both days.

“After a week of adversity during preparations, with sickness running rampant throughout the team, I am proud of the way the squad answered and responded in our last two home matches of the semester,” says men’s head coach Cody Quiring. “We defended home court in two big wins against a very scrappy and talented team. Proud of our whole group and coaching staff for the immense efforts in making the weekend a success.”

Both the men’s and women’s teams face the CMU Blazers on December 2 to finish out their fall semester games.