Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – By the time the MacEwan Griffins men's basketball team woke up from an early slumber that spotted the visiting UFV Cascades a 26-5 lead seven minutes in, it was already too late to affect the result.
Although they battled the Cascades evenly throughout the middle part of the game, they could only get as close as 13 before falling apart late in the fourth quarter and suffering a 102-71 defeat in their Canada West home opener on Friday night.
Perhaps it was the butterflies of playing their first regular season game?
"Maybe," said head coach Mike Connolly. "We've been practicing pretty hard. I have no idea. They just rebounded and ran on us, which we should not have given up. The other things we can take care of. We just didn't have a focus.
"The guys have to look at themselves and we talked about that. We have depth, so now we can keep guys accountable."
UFV's two-headed post attack of 6-foot-7 Dario Lopez and 6-foot-8 Dhivaan Bhogal proved to be too much for a Griffins team that didn't have a consistent rebounding effort.
Lopez led the Cascades with 21 points and 12 rebounds, while Bhogal bucketed 20 points with nine boards. Guard Courtney Anderson drained 18 points.
"We just didn't play well," said Connolly. "We started off terrible. We started to fight it. We were right there. We had it to 13 with four or five to go and then we just made some silly turnovers. We did not play with the energy defensively. We didn't box out. They had 22 rebounds. Those guys hurt us, but they shouldn't. They beat us."
Three players shared the Griffins' scoring lead with 12 points apiece – Scottie Austin, Taylor Cook and Job Janda.
M��| Job Janda with a great play as @MacewanBasketb1 has a pushback in the second quarter but still trail @UFVCascades 53-35 at the half in their @CanadaWest home opener.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/bEqcyS4s2E
— MacEwan Griffins (@MacEwanGriffins) November 5, 2022
Connolly was impressed with Janda's effort in his first game action in several months after recovering from hand surgery. The second-year wing also led the Griffins with seven rebounds. He also singled out Thompson Rivers University transfer Thai Haak, who had seven points and earned more than 18 minutes off the bench.
"Thai Haak did a good job defensively," he said. "He got after it and made some hard plays. That was Job's first game back. He got seven rebounds and 12 points, and he played defence and he hustled. That was his first game. He hadn't played yet this year."
The teams will meet again on Saturday (4 p.m., David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV).