Trojans Pace Lions in First of Double-Header

            The Ambrose Lions took on the 4-1 SAIT Trojans on Friday night at home. The Trojans were coming off their first loss of the season against the University of Alberta Augustana. The Lions were missing a few key players including starting center and leading rebounder for the ACAC Kamsiyochi Ogbudibe.

            To open the first, Ambrose struggled from the field. The Lions outsized the Trojans, allowing center Andrijana Bokan to clean up on the offensive boards to keep the score close early. On the other end, the Trojans' motion offense was highly effective especially in transition, as the Lions had a hard time getting set after their press was broken. SAIT #11 and #0 were particularly effective. Nya Gach, who started in place of the injured Ogbudibe, went 4-4 from the charity stripe to keep the deficit down and ending the quarter just down 14-15.

            The Trojans started the second hot, going on a 10-2 run to start the quarter. The Lions were forced to call a timeout after a 3-point play by #0 Brook Baker to cap off the run. With Bokan on the bench, Ambrose struggled to generate offense in the half-court while SAIT continued to make them pay in transition. With 4 minutes to go in the half, the Trojans' Ava Kearl knocked down a 3 to grow the lead to 15. The Lions were ice-cold in the first half, going 1-12 from deep as the Trojans led 48-31 going into half-time.

            Both teams came out sloppy to start the second half struggling to keep the rate of turnovers down. Lazy passes in the backcourt from both teams were being picked off with ease. The scoring slowed drastically in the third as neither team could get things going. The Lions failed to score any second chance points in the quarter after putting up 20 in the first half. After putting up a combined 50 points in the second both teams only managed to put up 25 in the third as SAIT continued to grow their lead to 63-40.

            The fourth quarter was another back-and-forth affair as each team picked it up defensively. Brook Baker put up 7 of her team high 22 points for the Trojans to go along with 5 from eventual player of the game #7 Macy Mulholland. For the Lions, #7 Ariana Dela Paz came off the bench to score a team high 18 points to earn herself player of the game for the home team. The Lions won the fourth quarter, but not by enough to put a substantial debt in the deficit as the Trojans took the game 77-57.

            With the loss the Lions drop to 5-4 on the season, putting them in a 4-way tie for second in the ACAC South. They will have to turn things around quickly, as they face off against the Trojans again Saturday afternoon at the University of Calgary.