By Kara Giesbrecht

 

The Briercrest men’s basketball team came from behind in an exciting fourth quarter against Lethbridge College. The Margaret P. Reimer Memorial gymnasium was buzzing with excitement as the Briercrest Clippers opened up their season with an exhilarating home opener. Strong defense created turnovers, allowing Briercrest to set up offensive plays, which resulted in their pulling ahead in the final sixty seconds to win the game 87-86.

 Coach Rod Adrian said most of their plays came from their defense.

 “We created a lot of turnovers had a lot of steals and that turned into easy points in offense for us”

Lethbridge opened the score in the first quarter, leading 7-0. A steal and drive to the basket by Lucas Mannes gave the Clippers their first points.  Briercrest’s momentum continued to grow, evening the score at 9-9 and 17-17. A steal by James Wohlgeschaffen set Lucas Mannes up for a 3-pointer with three seconds left in the quarter, ending ahead 23-17.

Adrian explained that resiliency was key in a Clipper lead after the first quarter.

“We were resilient, we didn’t break, we just bent a little bit, then we fought back and won the first quarter.”

Briercrest commanded the score immediately going into the second quarter. The crowd was on its feet as rookie Ryan Penner sunk a 3-pointer early on, which Friesen  followed directly with a slam dunk. Lethbridge responded, narrowing the gap to 36-32. Strong Briercrest offense characterized by steals and drives to the basket resulted in maintaining a 47-39 lead at halftime.

Christian Sacoman was key in setting up steals in the third quarter. Josiah Cockrill broke open the 51-51 tie with a 3-pointer and another 3-pointer shortly after by Mannes extended the Briercrest lead to 59-55. Lethbridge fought back and ended the quarter ahead 66-63.

The first fourth quarter points were Lethbridge’s, but Sacoman answered back with a 3-pointer, now only trailing 66-68. Lethbridge extended their lead 79-73 when a 3-pointer by Wohlgeschaffen provided Briercrest with the momentum needed to close the gap at 85-85 with one minute remaining. Excitement sizzled in the air as Briercrest pulled ahead 87-85. Lethbridge had the opportunity to tie it up with two foul shots, but only making one, the game belonged to the Clippers, 87-86.

 

Game notes:

Briercrest player of the game was Lucas Mannes with a game high 28 points to go with three rebounds, five assists, one block and five steals.

Christian Sacoman led in getting 6 of 17 steals in total. Ryan Penner led overall with seven assists. Briercrest sunk 13 free throws of their 19 attempts (68.4%), while Lethbridge made 6 of their 11 (54.5%).

Lethbridge dominated the board with 49 rebounds to Briercrest’s 27 although Briercrest allowed 23 turnovers compared to Lethbridge’s 34. The turnovers came off of 17 Briercrest steals compared to nine for Lethbridge.

The Lethbridge player of the game was Dominic Coward with a game high 28 rebounds, to go with five assists, and 27 points.

Briercrest looks for another victory against Lethbridge tomorrow October 19 at 3pm.

If you cannot make it to the game be sure to follow online at SportsCanada.tv or like Briercrest Basketball on Facebook.