GUELPH, Ont. - On Saturday afternoon (Jan. 7) the Guelph Gryphons men's basketball team hosted the U of T Varsity Blues in their first home game of the new year. Coming off of an 81-69 loss to the TMU Bold just a few days earlier, the Gryphons were looking to bounce back and pick up their 4th win of the 2022-23 season. In what proved to be a hard fought, tightly contested game the visiting Varsity Blues were able to pull out the win, defeating Guelph 99-85. 

The game opened up with a tough first quarter for the Gryphons who after 10 minutes found themselves training 27-17 due to being out-shot by Toronto 65% to 35% on an even 17 attempts with Guelph shooting 1-8 from beyond the arc. The Gryphons would end up being outscored in each of the first three quarters, and tie the Varsity Blues 21-21 in the fourth. In what proved to be the deciding factor, the second quarter saw the visiting team continued to outshoot Guelph in the second despite the Gryphons holding them to just 18 attempts. The Gryphons played a much better second half, keeping pace with the Varsity Blues and only being utscored by one basket. Unfourtunately Toronto's first half lead proved to be too much to overcome and the Gryphons would fall to 3-7 on the season. 

The Gryphons were led by a couple of veterans in Viktoras Nausedas and Emmanuel Ansah. Nausedas who was coming off one of his best individual performances in Guelph's loss to TMU, finished the game with 20 points on 50% shooting while adding 6 rebounds. A Mississauga, Ontario native, Ansah put up 20 points, including 4 threes while also bringing down 6 rebounds in addition to 5 assists. 5th-year human kinetics major Keenan Dowell, a standout guard and another Gryphon veteran, added 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting.

The Gryphons will look to bounce back as the head on the road next weekend to take on the Carleton Ravens (Jan. 14) and Ottawa Gee-Gees (Jan. 15). Tip off for the two games are set for 8pm on Saturday and 4pm on Sunday. Both matches can be seen live, online at www.oua.tv.