Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — After getting blown out by the University of Fraser Valley Cascades on their home court in their season opener, the MacEwan Griffins men's basketball team had to do some self-reflection.
While they didn't get the win in their rematch, they certainly got the message.
The Griffins lost a hard-fought 88-81 battle on Saturday afternoon at the David Atkinson gymnasium.
Milan Jaksic scored a career-high 27 points and eight rebounds, while Matthew Osunde had 10 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in the loss.
Dhivaan Bhogal and Dylan Kinley recorded 18 points each, while Bhogal hauled in 11 rebounds in the win as UFV improves to 2-0, while MacEwan falls to 0-2.
"I give our guys a lot of credit. They had a lot of self-evaluation last night. They watched film, and they responded in a positive way," said Griffins head coach Mike Connolly.
"They showed they can play a lot better, and I'm happy with their response."
MacEwan played inspired basketball. Nobody likes to get embarrassed on their home court, and they were in striking distance all game long.
They trailed 54-49 at the half, and heading into the fourth quarter they only trailed by a single bucket, 71-69.
But offensively in the fourth quarter, their scoring touch went cold.
"We were getting stops defensively, but we couldn't buy a bucket at the other end," said Connolly.
"When we did get stops, we had a few too many turnovers, and they capitalized. We have to work on some of our decision making, but our guys are working hard."
M��| Milan Jaksic drains a big three for @MacewanBasketb1 as they head into the half in the midst of a @CanadaWest barnburner, trailing @UFVCascades 54-49.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/H1TZf1FgAW
— MacEwan Griffins (@MacEwanGriffins) November 5, 2022
The Griffins tied it at 71-71 early in the fourth quarter off a jumper from Taylor Cook. After Dario Lopez made it 80-75, Osunde drove hard to the basket and got the layup to make it 80-77. Moments later, a great pass from Isiah Merk to Osunde made it a one-point game, 80-79.
The Griffins had a great chance to take the lead after some great work on the offensive glass, but they came up empty.
The Cascades, who were getting dominated on the offensive glass in the first half, made the most of their work on the offensive glass in the late stages in the fourth quarter as Lopez grabbed his team-leading fourth offensive rebound and scored to put the game out of reach at 86-81 with 33 seconds left.
"They had four offensive boards in the first half, and 12 in the second half, and that killed us," said Connolly.
"We have to watch and learn and grow from this fourth quarter. We did a lot of good things (defensively), but we made a lot of mistakes, and we can learn from these types of moments."
Despite the loss, the young Griffins team that is filled with nothing but first and second-year players have lots of positives to build on. The negatives are teachable moments that they can learn from.
"I can't coach if they don't give effort, and I thought they worked real hard today, and now hopefully they can grab on to this and build off it," said Connolly.
"One of the major goals is to get better. We got better today. That's all we can ask. Now, we have to go to practice on Monday, and work on getting better on Monday."
The Griffins will now travel to Calgary next weekend to face the Mount Royal Cougars.
