Broncos hang on to edge Briercrest

The Olds College Broncos needed every last second of the 40 minutes on the clock, but they pulled out a gutsy 82-81 win over the Briercrest College Clippers at the Ralph Klein Centre on Friday.

Keunte Howard led all scorers with 23 points to pick up Player of the Game honours for Olds College (2-13), while the bench received strong contributions from Gurech Gurech (12 points, six rebounds) and Austin Nzige-Nyambok (11 points, nine rebounds, six assists, four steals).

For Briercrest (2-13), Riley Seaborn paced the attack with 18 points to go with nine rebounds, four assists and three steals, while Matthew Bryant added 17 points and nine rebounds of his own.

The opening quarter started out with the Broncos gradually building out an eight-point lead, only for the Clippers to push back late to cut Olds College's lead to 25-22 through the opening 10 minutes.

Though Olds College maintained a healthy lead for the majority of the second, a quick 9-0 run from Briercrest spanning 1:45 put them up 40-38, a lead they took into halftime.

The third quarter saw Briercrest keep the Broncos largely at bay while extending the lead as far as nine, though Olds College clawed back to cut Briercrest's lead to 62-58 entering the fourth.

The final frame went back and forth, with the Broncos reclaiming the lead at 73-72 off a Fritz Rostek three-pointer with 5:05 to go. The teams would trade the lead back and forth three more times before a Howard three put the Broncos up 82-80 with 1:11 to go; after Bryant went 1-of-2 from the line, Briercrest had a chance for another buzzer-beater, but a Seaborn three-point attempt in the dying seconds didn't find the mark.

Olds College and Briercrest will complete their doubleheader at 3 p.m. on Saturday in Olds.