Algonquin Thunder men’s basketball team suffered a tremendous defeat to the visiting George Brown Huskies on Nov. 30, losing 105-66 in their final game.
Thunder head coach Trevor Costello was not happy with his players’ performance.
“Terrible game, terrible defensively, offensively,” said Costello. “It wasn’t a good game. We turned the ball over a lot, didn’t play great [defense], so nobody had a really good performance.”
The game was still tight after the first quarter, with the Thunder slightly falling behind by 26-23.
Yet the Huskies had their defense more organized starting in the second quarter as they messed up the pace of Thunder’s attacks.
The Huskies started the second half of the game with a 20-point lead, making the score 56-35. Then they maintained the lead with almost the same scoring difference throughout the third quarter. It was 77-50 by the end of the quarter.
The gap was widened during the final quarter.
Thunder had multiple passes intercepted by the Huskies and they only converted about half of their shots.
The Huskies capitalized on Thunder’s flaws and tore up their line of defense. They managed to block a lot of passes made by Thunder players and built up several fast-paced counter attacks, which Algonquin had not prepared for.
Hesam-Rav Fatah, an audience member watching the game, was not impressed by Thunder’s performance.
“I just feel like they really need a leader because nobody knows their roles in the team,” said Fatah. “George Brown came in and they really boosted the tempo. They dictated the pace of the game, and once again, the lack of the roles just reflected on the Algonquin side. Hopefully they can get it back together.”
Thunder players Zerious Loney and Simon Desta contributed to nearly 40 per cent of the team’s total score in the adverse situation. Some of their teammates gave positive feedback about them.
“Zerious had a good performance,” said Thunder guard Brandon Gonsalves. “He’s one of our best players and he can work anywhere on the court.”
Thunder forward Frantzini Cambronne from the Thunder says that Desta and gave the team some good boost.
“Simon Desta kind of carried a bit on offense,” said Cambronne. “He kind of gave us some energy. He was one of the players who helped us out.”
The Thunder are in a bitter situation right now. They are in second-to-last place in the OCAA’s eastern division with a record of 2-8, while Husky were almost undefeated this season. The victory over Thunder has pushed them to a 8-1 record, second in the east division.
In their next game on Jan. 10, Thunder will be facing the La Cite Coyotes.