The Wesmen men’s basketball team lost two hard-fought games to finish fourth at the 2009 Pembina Chrysler Invitational Oct. 23 to 24.

The Wesmen took on the University of Laurentian Voyageurs in the opening game Friday night.

Laurentian started the game strong and took an early lead, leaving the Wesmen trailing by four points after the first quarter.  The Wesmen were unable to steal the lead and at the end of the half were down 42-31.

The Wesmen came out fighting when the second half began. They pushed the ball in transition, boxed out, played tough defence and hit their shots.

Within the first three minutes of the second half, the Wesmen had gone on a 10-2 run, led by fourth-year forward Peter Lomuro, who scored eight of the 10 points.

Undaunted, Laurentian responded with their own 10-0 run and, at the start of the fourth quarter, the score was 62-47 for Laurentian.

Wesmen fourth-year forward James Horaska noted that the Wesmen struggled to stop Laurentian’s high scorer, Isiah Pasquale, in the second half.

“ We have to make sure we close out games, avoid mental lapses and stay focused right until the end.

James Horaska,  Wesmen forward

“We have to stop letting one or two guys go off every game, because that’s what killed us.”

The last 10 minutes of play saw both teams fighting for the lead. Wesmen went on another run and closed the gap to 62-54, but fell just short of taking over the game.

On the other side, Laurentian’s Pasquale tipped the balance with 30 points. The final score was 78-71 for Laurentian.

Winnipeg came out strong in their Saturday match against the University of Concordia Stingers, out-scoring Concordia 21-13 in the first quarter. Although the Stingers fought back in the second half and cut the lead to five, the Wesmen were still up 39-34 at halftime.

The second half started much like the first.  The Wesmen appeared to bury the Stingers and led 65-50 by the end of the third quarter. But the Stingers came out fighting and on fire at the start of the fourth quarter.

The Stingers went on a 30-6 run in the last 10 minutes of the game, and defeated the Wesmen 80-71. 

Looking towards the regular season which begins this weekend (Oct. 30-31) in Calgary, Horaska said the team needs to learn from the tournament and be ready for close games down to the wire.

“We have to make sure we close out games, avoid mental lapses and stay focused right until the end.”

Published in Volume 64, Number 9 of The Uniter (October 29, 2009)