The Algonquin Thunder men’s basketball had their first home game of the season against the Durham Lords on Oct. 25 and ultimately fell to defeat.
The game started at 8 p.m. with both teams warming up. The stands were crowded with people who were already hyped up from the women’s game that recently finished. One man stood up and cheered while he rang cowbells.
Jordan Harcombe led the team by scoring most of his points in the first quarter. While he scored many two-pointers during that time, the first quarter ended 24-14 with the Thunder trailing behind the Lords.
During the second quarter, it was Chris Lachapelle, Irvan Yacinthe and Harcombe’s three-pointers that brought the team’s score up by 17, ending the first half 44-31.
The Thunder men brought the score up to 54 by the time the third quarter ended. With the help of Simon Desta earning the team 10 points, the quarter ended with a score of 66-54.
People in the crowd were getting anxious screaming from the stands as the Thunder men were nearing its final quarter. They rose 24 points with a collective of two and three-pointers from the team.
Thunder’s defeat was shy of eight points from winning their first game of the season with a score of 85-78.
Instead of being in high spirits and shaking hands, members of both sides of the Thunder and Lords broke out into a fight. A player from the Thunder and a player from the Lords stepped up to each other but before anything physical happened, their respective coaches and teammates quickly stopped it.
Last week they had their first game of the season on Oct 19. against La Cité which resulted in the season’s first loss.
David Tshimanga, Thunder’s guard/forward, said that the team has a chance to be better for the season and that they may have had a rough start but they’ll be better by the end of the season.
The Thunder team also has some new faces that joined this season and some new prospects to look out for.
“Stef. Stef is a really nice guy, he’s for the team. Jordan and Reo, two big men that we were searching for last year,” said Tshimanga. “A couple of rookies are coming in, Liam, Reo, Jadyn and a bunch of other guys. Irvin too, they gonna be new people for the season.”
The Thunder will be going up against the Fleming College Knights for a home game on Oct. 26 at 6 p.m.