The Lancer men's basketball team split their final pair of home games of the 2017 calendar year this weekend at the St. Denis Centre. Windsor narrowly came away with an 82-80 win over the Nipissing Lakers on Friday night before dropping a 90-63 decision to the Laurentian Voyaguers on Saturday afternoon.
 
Windsor heads into the Christmas break with a 4-6 record and is tied with Algoma for third place in the OUA west division.
 
FRIDAY vs NIPISSING
Mike Rocca played all but three minutes of the game and led the Lancers with 20 points. Windsor had five other athletes hit double digits including Lucas Orlita with 15 points, Chris Poloniato off the bench with 12 points, Anthony Zrvnar with 11 and Damian Persaud with 10.
 
Jaaden Lewis led all scorers with 30 points for the Lakers, while Marvin Ngonadi had 11 points and Ismeal Kaba and Marcus Lewis with ten points each.
 
Defensively, the Lakers out-rebounded the Lancers 45-32.
 
SATURDAY vs LAURENTIAN
The game was about as Canadian as it could get with three players getting double-doubles. For Laurentian, Kadre Gray paired his 11 rebounds with 22 points while team mate Anthony Iacoe dropped 11 points and collected 10 boards.
 
Rocca led Windsor scoring 12 points to accompany his 10 rebounds.
 
The Lancers were held to 37 per cent shooting, with the Lancers connecting on only 29 per cent of their second half looks. The Laurentian offence shot a respectable 41 per cent from the field.
 
The first half was a tale of two quarters for the Lancers. In the first quarter, the Lancers used a hot 52 per cent field goal percentage to rack up 22 points in the first quarter. The Windsor defense stood tall as well, forcing the Voyageurs to work for every one of their 13 points. After the first quarter the Lancers looked in control as they led 22-13.
 
In the second quarter however, Laurentian found their offense en route to a 21-point quarter. The Lancers offense stagnated as they struggled to get good shots and lost some chances on the boards for second chance points. Despite their struggles and losing the lead, the Lancers were able to gain back the lead and took their 39-34 advantage into the break.
 
The second half was all Voyageurs as Laurentian slowly but surely asserted their dominance throughout the half. After leading through the first half, the Lancers offense shot a paltry 29 per cent from the field in the second half. As the Laurentian defense locked down Windsor, their offense went to work building a lead. Despite a first half the Lancers were outclassed by the Voyageurs, 93-60  
 
UP NEXT
Up next the Lancers are headed home for the holidays. The Blue and Gold return to action on Wednesday, Jan. 3 against McMaster in Hamilton. The game tips off at 8:00pm and can be seen at OUA.tv.