Briercrest Men’s Basketball took on the SAIT Trojans for their first home game of the second half of the season.

The game started off with SAIT taking a small lead. Briercrest moved the ball around well and capitalized on foul shots to ensure they didn’t fall far behind though. Briercrest continued to make hard shots under the net and made key defensive plays allowing the first quarter to end with a close score of 23-21 for SAIT.

SAIT started the second quarter off by increasing their lead. Briercrest wasn’t ready to give up though and worked hard by making important rebounds and foul shots. SAIT continued to sink their shots though allowing them to increase their lead. The first half of the game ended with a score of 49-33 for SAIT.

The second half of the game was when the team and fans started to roar. Ben Kornelsen made a slam dunk that got the entire gymnasium cheering. Briercrest fed off that and continued to chip away at the score. SAIT decided to call timeout at 42-55 for SAIT to ensure that Briercrest didn’t gain the lead. Briercrest forced a few turnovers to help close the gap. Ethan DaSilva continued to help close the gap by sinking three foul shots in a row after being fouled at the buzzer. The third quarter ended with a score of 63-52 for SAIT.

Briercrest came into the final quarter ready to battle hard till the end. They made great defensive plays to ensure SAIT didn’t increase their lead and continued to make important shots. Brian Tolentino made a clutch layup to help catch up to SAIT. Briercrest then called timeout with one minute remaining and a score of 73-79 for SAIT. Kornelsen made another slam-dunk only seconds after the timeout to get the gymnasium roaring. Unfortunately, Briercrest was unable to gain the lead and fell to SAIT with a score of 82-75.

Ethan DaSilva was awarded Player of the Game and had two team highs of 2 steals and 18 points. DaSilva also had 9 rebounds and a game high of 6 assists in the match. Zak Tamlin had two game highs of 11 rebounds and two three-pointers.

Briercrest dominated in the stats category with 6-3 three-pointers, 50-41 rebounds, 17-9 assists and 2-1 blocks. SAIT had 13-5 steals in the match.

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