Lions Sweep Series Against Broncos

            The Ambrose Lions took on the Olds College Broncos for the second time in as many nights on Saturday. A double overtime thriller between the women's teams delayed the start time, but both teams came ready to play.

            Isaac Gray opened to scoring for the Lions off the jump, to kick off a back and forth first quarter. The Lions were hard pressed to contain Broncos guard Kuente Howard who had over half of the Broncos first half points, but Gray was able to match him bucket for bucket for the early portions of the game closing the first quarter 18-16

            Ambrose opened the second quarter on a 16-3 run to open up the spread thanks in part to scoring from Hudson Wiebe who was making his regular season home debut. The Broncos responded with a 10-0 run of their own with 5 points each from Kuente Howard and Corbin Macmillan off the bench, bringing the deficit to 29-34. Gray put in 5 more points of his own in response to end the half with a 39-29 lead.

            The Broncos came out swinging to start the second half. A flurry of buckets and some defensive miscues on the side of Ambrose allowed them to shrink the deficit to 2, forcing the Lions to call a timeout with the score 44-42. Isaac Gray completed a 3-point play out of the timeout to try and stem the Broncos momentum. Failing to box out allowed the Broncos take advantage of second chance points and get to the charity stripe. Despite 27 points from Gray through three quarters, Howard's 25 led Olds to a 59-58 advantage going into the final frame.

            Ambrose didn't lose any confidence going into the fourth, going on an 11-0 run to take a 69-59 lead. Without Mateja Vukic on the floor, however, Ambrose would once again struggle to rebound and let the Broncos creep their way back into it getting as close as 69-65 on a jump shot from Lado Laku. But that was as close as they would get. Despite holding Gray scoreless in the fourth, the rest of the Lions stepped up to take the second game of their series against the Broncos 79-71.

            Player of the game awards were given to Gray and Howard after their phenomenal duel. Howard had 11 rebounds and 3 assists to go with his game high 33 points, and Gray led the way for Ambrose with 27 points and 7 rebounds. The Ambrose Lions will look to extend their 5-game winning streak next weekend against the NAIT Ooks at home.