The Griffins men’s basketball team was looking to bounce back Saturday night after a poor performance in a Friday night 102-71 loss against the Fraser Valley Cascades. 
Saturday night’s game started out slow — the Griffins only shot 33 per cent from the field allowing the Cascades to jump out to an eight point 27-19 lead after the first quarter. The second quarter belonged to the Griffins since they had their best shooting quarter of the game as they went 53 per cent from the field to cut into the Cascades lead and gave the Griffins momentum going into the third quarter only down 54-49.

Once again, the Griffins controlled the third quarter as they locked down the Cascades’ defence, holding them to a 32 percent field goal percentage in the quarter. The Griffins shooting was slightly better in the quarter with 39 per cent, but the Griffins defence was the real reason that the lead for the Cascades was cut down to 71-69 after three quarters. 

The fourth quarter was a back and forth contest and the Griffins were able to get it to a one score game in the fourth quarter, but weren’t able to overcome a poor shooting night, eventually falling to the Cascades 88- 81 and falling to 0-2 in the young season. 

The Griffins did not shoot the ball well, accumulating a low 38 percent field goal percentage on 74 shots and only went 5-29 from three for a low 17 per cent shooting percentage from behind the arc. The Griffins also gave up 19 points of turnovers with a lot of those points coming from easy layups for the Cascades. The second-chance points were also lopsided in this game as the Cascades were able to get 18 second-chance points, while the Griffins were only able to get eight second-chance points in the game. 

Despite the loss, the Griffins were able to get some help from the younger players on the team — they had 29 points off the bench. Another brightspot for the Griffins was number 14, Milan Joksic, shooting 11-14 from the field for a game high of 27 points,also adding 8 rebounds and an assist. 

The Griffins need to bring their strong defence on the road next weekend when they head to Calgary to take on the Mount Royal Cougars. Fans of the Griffins won’t be able to see them in action at home until Nov. 25 when they welcome the Winnipeg Wesmen to the Atkinson Gymnasium.