Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – The ebbs and flows of a young Griffins team that has had to replace 60 per cent of its point production from a season ago have been epic.
There have been wild fluctuations in shooting percentage from quarter to quarter.
There have been soft defensive shells that have bled points followed by tenacious, street basketball sets that forced the opposition into mistakes.
Such is life for the 1-7 Griffins as they aim to overcome the inconsistencies inherent with a young team that is still finding its way after losing six veteran players from last season.
They will close out the first half of the season with a pair of road games at the University of Winnipeg (2-8) on Friday (7 p.m. MT) and Saturday (6 p.m. MT, both on Canada West TV).
"When we finally put it all together and get guys to sort of click at the same time is when we're going to be scary," said head coach Eric Magdanz. "We know this is a development process and some of our guys are figuring it out as the season goes along, but it gives us a ton of hope for the future."
Outside of a select few starters the Griffins are really leaning on, it's been like opening a mystery box to find out who is going to lead the way on any given night.
Through eight Canada West games so far, seven different players have led MacEwan in scoring. In order: Dustin Gatzki, Deonte Doslov-Doctor, Lincoln Anderson, Liban Yousef, Adonis Monfort-Palomino, Ali Raza, Ali Raza and Ryan Coleman.
Jake Notice, Atlas St. Paul-Butler and Harrison Lane have also had double digit points games this season.
"We look around the league and a lot of teams are only playing six or seven players a night and we can go 10 deep," said Magdanz. "We don't know which of the 10 are going to be our best players that night, so once we gain that consistency, we can become a really dangerous team in this league."
The Griffins will head into a weekend visit to the Wesmen off their best half of basketball this season – a 58-point output against UNBC that nearly rallied them back from a 27-point half-time deficit.
"I think there's lots of things for us to build off of," said Magdanz. "Scoring's been a bit of a struggle for us this year and scoring consistently definitely has been. (That half) shows we can put the ball in the net. When were aggressive and play with each other, we can really score. It's taking that momentum and building towards this weekend."
The Wesmen are also currently shy of the final playoff spot, so, at least on paper, the matches seem winnable for the Griffins. Winnipeg is led by Narcisse Ambanza (15.3 ppg) and Denzel Lynch-Blair (14.6 ppg).
"I think they match up well to us," said Magdanz. "They have a lot of long, athletic guards who are very talented.
"I think it should be a good weekend and a good couple challenging games for us."
