NAIT Tops Thunder With Strong Second Half Effort
EDMONTON, AB (November 27, 2021) – The Concordia University of Edmonton (CUE) Thunder welcomed the NAIT Ooks in Saturday night action to close the two team's weekend home-and-home. A back-and-forth affair early, NAIT used a strong second half effort to pull away from the Thunder to win the game 91-85.
The first quarter started with both teams flying. A tight quarter of exchanging baskets, the Thunder and Ooks were all tied up 17-17 after the first. Concordia was lead in the quarter by #3 Valentino Vo, who had five points. The tight clash continued into the second quarter with both teams exchanging leads and baskets. Ultimately it was an extra three pointer from NAIT that gave them the one point lead at the half, 36-35. The third quarter was where the game started to change. NAIT's half time adjustments proved crucial as they outscored the Thunder 27-18 in the period, lead by #8 Dante Dinter who had eight points in the quarter, to take a 63-53 lead after three. The Thunder were able to find their game in the fourth quarter, and chipped away at NAIT's lead, but couldn't close the gap completely as NAIT hung on to win the game 91-85.
After the game, Thunder head coach Reagan Wood commented: "disappointing loss… it was a game we felt we needed to have and credit to NAIT for their ability to shut us down at key moments."
The One Team Sports players of the game were #6 Luka Korosec for NAIT and #1 Nyasha Mubayiwa for Concordia.
This game closed out the first half of the Thunder regular season schedule as they now head into the Christmas break. Their season will resume on January 14th and 15th when they welcome the Keyano Huskies for a weekend double header at the Ralph King Athletic Centre.