Short-Handed Lions Fall to Trojans

            The short-handed Lions took on the SAIT Trojans Friday Night. SAIT came into the night sporting a 1-4 record, meanwhile the Lions have dropped their last 4 in a row after starting off the season 5-0. Due to suspensions the Lions came into the game missing leading scorer Isaac Gray and starting center Jace Straub.

            The Lions came out stronger to start the first, going up 11-4 just 4 minutes in. Trojans' starter #9 Isaac Alic picked up his 3^rd personal foul just over 5 minutes into the game. The Trojans didn't let that get them down, however, as they turned the tides themselves closing out the quarter 16-5 to take a 20-16 lead at the end of the first. 

            Sloppy turnovers plagued the Lions in the second quarter, committing a whopping 16 in the first half. Hudson Wiebe put on a strong scoring output in the quarter, scoring back-to-back threes as part his 14-point first half output. But on the other side Marcus Masters put up 13 first half points including 3-5 from three for the Trojans leading the way for his team from deep as they shot 46% in the half compared to the Lions 26%.

            The Trojans came out of the gates strong to start the second half, opening on a 12-0 run before Alonzo Tan finally ended the scoring drought. The Lions offense was stagnant in the half court, allowing the Trojans to break out in transition. The Lions started to pick it up offensively, but the damage was already done as SAIT had already built a 20-point lead. Marcus Masters and Kuol Kuol led the Trojans en route to winning the quarter 29-21 to enter the fourth leading 78-61.

            Entering the fourth quarter the Lions came ready for the challenge starting with a three from Hudson Wiebe. Wiebe and Alonzo Tan led the way to shrink the deficit to as little as 7. With 2 minutes to play, #12 Guilherme Ferreira made a big-time block and as Wiebe came down on the fast break the ref called a very controversial offensive foul inciting boos from the crowd and killing the Lions momentum and their chances at completing the comeback. After that, the Trojans had an easy time closing out the game 91-79.

            With the loss the Lions drop to 5-5 on the season; they will have to look to bounce back in a rematch against SAIT Saturday afternoon. Player of the game awards were given to Lions' Hudson Wiebe who put up season highs of 27 points and 10 rebounds; and to Trojans' Marcus Masters who led his team with 28 points of his own.