Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — It was almost like a carbon copy result of the night before for the MacEwan Griffins.
A really slow start. Fight and claw their way back, and make it close in the final moments, but it wasn't enough as MacEwan fell 91-84 on Saturday to Lethbridge at the David Atkinson Gym.
"It was a lot like last night. We gave up 31 points today in the first quarter and held them to just 33 points in the second half. The first half just got away from us. In the second half, we came to play, but we just made some mistakes," said Griffins head coach Mike Connolly.
"I'm not happy with our character right now. We had guys whining and complaining instead of being gritty and getting to it, and when we did, it was too late.
"We have to be better, we have to be more consistent and we have to start taking responsibility and once we do that, we'll be much better."
Hugo Alonso led MacEwan with 19 points and three rebounds, while Diego Presingular chipped in with 14 points and five assists, a steal and block in the loss for the Griffins, who fell to 2-10 this year.
Lethbridge had four players hit double-digits in points, and were led by Adam Dalil who recorded 23 points and three rebounds off the bench. Angelo Mbituyimana had 18 points and seven rebounds as Lethbridge improved to 9-3.
For the most part this season, MacEwan have got off to solid starts, but this weekend against Lethbridge was the polar opposite.
They were down 32-17 after the first quarter and were trailing by 22 points at the half, as Lethbridge looked like they were on cruise control leading 58-36 at the break.
"We talked about it. Maybe we need to change the lineup? Maybe we need to change things? We're not getting the start like we should. We were starting better, but now we're not," said Connolly.
Osuma to Osuma. Finished off the with hook from Dami!#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/MlN0HMqMus
— MacEwan Griffins Men's Basketball Team (@Griffins_MBB) January 19, 2025
After digging themselves a huge hole entering the third quarter, the Griffins got rolling with an 8-2 run to start the half, capped off by a three-pointer from Milan Jaksic, who finished with nine points and nine rebounds.
They chipped away at the lead, but Lethbridge wasn't going to back down as they pushed back with some big shots of their own, led by a long-distance three from Bryce Solis, who chipped in with 11 points, and MacEwan wasn't able to put too much of a dent into the Pronghorns lead - 19 going into the fourth quarter.
"It's very frustrating to have to fight back like that the whole game, because we always have to give extra than what they're giving," said Alonso.
"The biggest thing is we've had too many mental lapses this weekend where it would last two or three minutes and we're get too many turnovers, and we weren't passing the ball cleanly enough, and that allowed them to go on those big runs."
Sweet pass from Hugo Alonso to feed Job Janda for a layup as the @MacEwanGriffins get another late rally going.#GriffNation pic.twitter.com/GngNk2MQKS
— MacEwan Griffins Men's Basketball Team (@Griffins_MBB) January 19, 2025
In the fourth quarter, MacEwan outscored Lethbridge 28-16, and got some clutch shots from Presingular and Judson Weir, who hit back-to-back three-pointers to cut the lead to 87-72.
A nice run in the final two minutes that saw Job Janda, Joesef Gopie and Dami Osuma all score off layups cut the lead to seven points, but that was as close as MacEwan could get.
"We bring the best when we're down, the whole team starts fighting together, and you could see in the second half, it was a different story, we were right there and almost closed the gap," said Alonso.
"We need to start bringing that energy at the start, like we do at the end. We're down some bodies and I think some of us mentally felt we needed to save some of that energy for the end (of the game), but we can't do that. It has to change."
MacEwan will travel to Abbotsford next weekend to take on the University of Fraser Valley Cascades.
