The Thunder men’s basketball team resumed their season with an 84-72 comeback victory over their crosstown rivals the Coyotes des La Cité.
The Thunder extended their record to 6-5 and brought their winning streak to 3 games.
Esmat Atem led the way for the Thunder putting up a personal season high 24 points and 12 rebounds in 39 minutes of work. Owen Powers also had a strong game for the Thunder chipping in 21 points in 27 minutes.
Leading the way for the coyotes was Hess Mayele who scored 20 points and picked up 10 rebounds in the loss.
The Thunder were sloppy in possession all game finishing the night with 22 turnovers to the Coyotes 12.
A surprisingly pesky Coyotes squad gave the Thunder all they could handle in the first half. The Coyotes were able to keep it close, trailing by a score of 19-16 at the end of the first quarter. This was a stark contrast from their last meeting in which the Thunder ended the first quarter with a 32-6 lead.
The Coyotes made things very interesting in the second quarter, out-scoring the Thunder 22-15 and entering halftime with a 38-34 lead. It looked as if the Coyotes were going to steal a shocking victory from the Thunder in the third quarter, leading by as much as ten at times.
But the Thunder, led by the strong play of Esmat Atem rallied midway through the third and brought home the win in the fourth outscoring the Coyotes 50-34 in the second half
“We’ve never lost to this team but they were coming at us today, last time we beat them by a lot of points so they had it in for us,” said Atem. “We were down in the first half and I couldn’t let that happen. They’ve never beat us in their history so I don’t want to be a part of that team that they beat.”
Even though the Thunder came away with the win, head coach Trevor Costello wasn’t happy with his team’s effort early in the game. “In the first semester we beat them double their score,” said Costello. “So unfortunately our guys think it’s going to be a walk in the park, and I reiterated that it’s never a walk in the park.”
Costello said that the key to their rally was tightening up defensively. “We played better, keeping guys in front of us. We made them shoot tough shots.”