A Battle to the End – Thunder Come Up Short

EDMONTON, AB (January 28^th, 2023) - Concordia University of Edmonton (CUE) Thunder hosted the NAIT Ooks for round two of the weekend battle.

In the first quarter, both teams started off well offensively. The Ooks were just a bit quicker and created a six-point lead, but the Thunder score a beautiful buzzer beater three 3 pointer to bring the game 18-21 for the Ooks. In the second quarter the Ooks find their rhythm and bring them up to a lead of 19. Then Nick Gibb of the Thunder came storming back with a couple of deep threes landing, and cut the lead down to nine. The Ooks head into half time 43-34. The third quarter was tough for both teams, the Ooks keep the lead and the quarter was uneventful, neither team able to create an edge or change the momentum. The score is 63-49 for the Ooks. The Thunder pushed the tempo in the fourth, they lowered the lead to seven but the Ooks soon after pushed it back up to 14. The Thunder rally late hitting a couple of big threes and some good ball movement for layups, they cut the lead down to five. The Thunder don't have enough time to complete the comeback and lose 73-81.

Coach Reagan Wood commented "Tough loss for us tonight. We gave up too many second chance opportunities and it cost us. We battled in the 4^th quarter but came up short in the end". Thunder will look to break out of their slump as we race to the finish line of the regular season.

The One Team Sport players of the game were #9 Yasser Abdhullahi from the Ooks, with 23 points in the game. From the Thunder, #1 Nyasha Mubayiwa with 6 rebounds and 8 points in the night. The next home game for Concordia is on February 3^rd against the Lakeland Rustlers at 8PM. Only two home games left for the Thunder's regular season, we hope to see you here.