Coming off a successful season opener, the Thunder men basketball team lost its traction, losing its second game to the George Brown Huskies 90-69 at home court Oct. 26.
The Thunder were able to put in the effort for five minutes at a time but the Huskies were consistently able to keep 10 to 20 points ahead. The Thunder held the lead early in the first quarter but by the last minute and a half the Huskies were ahead and kept the lead for the rest of the game.
A large factor in the Thunder’s performance comes from a huge change in roster coming into the new season with only five returning players.
“That’s what started us off really slow this year,” said Trevor Costello, head coach for the Thunder men’s basketball team. “We’re getting better every day and it was a little bit of a setback today but [the Huskies] are a good team and you can’t take that away from them. They exposed us tonight and we’ll have to be ready for them next time.”
The Huskies wereconsistently putting in the effort,landing a half-court buzzer-beater at the end of the first half and keeping that momentum rolling into the second half.
In key moments in the fourth quarter fouls were given on both ends. The Thunder landed a couple of good free throws thanks to Daoud Soukary and his aggressive play near the end of the game. Cancelling out most of that traction were free throws given to the Huskies at a similar rate thanks to calls Costello passionately questioned. Late in the fourth quarterthe Huskies were given a free-throw due to said passionate questioning of the referee’s capabilities.
Gabriel Anderson and Soukary were pushing hard at the net and leading their team for points but they couldn’t put anything together.
“Our intensity wasn’t quite there,” said Costello. “There were many times where we weren’t playing together where we had some breakdowns. Like not respecting their game, not up on shooters, not hands up, just fundamental stuff we’ve been practicing all week that didn’t really work out tonight.”
The Thunder have a long road ahead. The Thunder are tightening up rookies and smoothing over fundamentals, turning potential into performance, in hopes of having a playoff bound team.