The Windsor Lancer men's basketball team won a tenacious battle on Saturday evening at the Toldo Lancer Centre on the Lancers Breast Cancer Awareness Day.
The McMaster Marauders pushed the Lancers to the limit but were unable to capture a road victory over the blue and gold as the Lancers narrowly defeated the Marauders 92-91 in front of a raucous TLC home crowd on hand for the good cause.
STATS
Najee Brown-Henderson once again went off for the blue and gold scoring 25 points and leading the way offensively along with dishing out 10 assists to his teammates.
Thomas Kennedy also had a night with 24 points and 16 rebounds contributing to the winning effort and even added few monster dunk highlights for fans to enjoy.
Yohann Sam was another blue and gold member who proved to be effective going 3-5 from long-range swishing major three-pointers when need be and boasting 15 points in the win in Windsor.
Other noteworthy contributions came from
Daniel Cummings,
Xavier Ochu, and
Quinn Carey who all added heavily to the mix in securing the home court victory.
McMaster's Mychael Paulo had 25 points leading the way for the Marauders but also saw a great performance from Mike Demagus as well despite the slim loss.
With the win Windsor now extends its current winning streak to four games won and 12-5 on the season to date now currently sitting on top of the OUA West division.
GAME FLOW
The Lancers came out of the gate firing on all cylinders opening up a 6-0 lead to start the first quarter on the home floor. Cummings opened the scoring and Kennedy netted two quick baskets less than a minute apart from one another before the Marauders would have a chance to respond. The blue and gold were able to keep the lead until the maroon and black knotted up the score at 18-18 with 1:55 left to play in the first frame. However, Windsor would go on to break the tie from the foul line and close out the first quarter up by a score of 23-21.
Second quarter action proved to be quite consistent with each side hustling hard to scramble for points and loose balls on the hardwood floor. Both squads traded points despite their being small margin leads intact then erased then later restored. 3-Point shots fell into both nets and that significantly played a part in leads either growing, evaporating, or stalemating. The Marauders were able to emerge victorious out of the second quarter going up 43-40 to end the first half with a lead courtesy of Demagus' play and Khalil Miller's pair of free throws made down the stretch.
Coming into the second half, the third quarter saw equally similar play from both sides matching one another's intensity and ramping up their play. Many coast-to-coast plays transpired in offence-to-defence transitions, but the Lancers seemed to be the ones who could keep firm control holding onto a steady lead throughout and closing out the quarter on top 74-68.
The final frame saw McMaster come out hungry to start off the fourth jumping out to a slender lead and stealing it back from the Lancers. The blue and gold were challenged with earning the potential for an eventual win on home court and knew it was not going to be given by the visitors who were wanting to extend their winning streak that they came into the contest with. The Lancers played the quarter with lots of heart and grit and the Marauders matched it and eventually found themselves deadlocked at 90-90 with 90 seconds left to play in regulation time.
A good layup from Kennedy in the paint clinched the victory for the Lancer gentlemen who went on to commit a foul and give Demagus one last chance to tie things up. He was able to make only one out of two late game free throw attempts to making it 92-91 Lancers with 28 seconds left to play in the game. However, it was solid lockdown defense by the blue and gold core that sealed the deal as they were able to come away with a hard-fought well-deserved victory at home in front of a large TLC crowd of roughly 500 fans in attendance.
UP NEXT
The Lancers are right back at it again on Sunday afternoon at 4:00pm when they take on the York Lions at the TLC. Fans can still get their tickets in advance at golancers.ca/tickets or at the gate. For those who cannot make it out you can catch the live action streaming on OUA.Tv or follow our social media pages for in-game updates.