Box Score
Guelph, ON – The Gryphons men's basketball team won 69-66 over the Lakehead Thunderwolves Friday night at the W.F. Mitchell Athletics Centre.  With the win, the Gryphons improve to 8-10 while Lakehead falls to 10-8.
 
As the saying goes, it's not how you start, it's how you finish.  That held true from Guelph's perspective on Friday night.  After a sluggish, mistake-filled opening quarter, the Gryphons found themselves trailing 20-9 heading to the second.  From that point on, the Gryphons turned things around, trimming the double digit deficit to six after three quarters of play.  In the fourth, the Gryphons would finish strong, outscoring Lakehead 21-12 in the final quarter.  The Gryphons, who trailed by as many as 13 in the opening quarter, would take their first lead of the game with four minutes left in the fourth quarter on a pair of Ahmed Haroon free throws.  Haroon came off the bench to score 13 points, and was part of a reserve squad that was the difference on the night as the Gryphons would go on to the 69-66 victory.
 
With the starters struggling early on, Gryphons head coach Chris O'Rourke went to his bench and the reserves would respond in a big way.  Three different Gryphons came off the bench to score in double figures; Jonathan Wallace had a team-high 17 points, Haroon added 13 and Taylor Boers finished with 12.  On the night, the Gryphons bench outscored the Lakehead bench 49-15.  The Gryphons were also able to win the turnover battle, forcing the Thunderwolves into 21 turnovers (and scoring 29 points off of Lakehead turnovers).
 
Although the Gryphons had already clinched a playoff spot before the game had even started, the win was a big step forward toward securing home court advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.  It will all be settled after Saturday night's games wrap up.  The Gryphons and Thunderwolves will play game two of their doubleheader Saturday at 8pm in what is the regular season finale for both teams.