Guelph, ON - Saturday afternoon at the W.F. Mitchell Athletics Centre the Gryphons' Men's Basketball team held their own against the fourth place finisher at last year's CIS Men's Final 8 Basketball Tournament fell just short, losing 71-65 in a close, physical game to the Victoria Vikes.
  The Gryphons got off to a strong start in the first quarter, capitalizing on mistakes made by the Vikes as the outside shot was falling for Guelph. The Gryphons led 16-8 with 3:39 remaining in the first quarter as the Vikes called a timeout and it ignited Victoria as they went on an 11-2 run to end the first quarter and 2:22 into the second. The Gryphons offensively went cold but their defense kept the Vikes at bay. The quarter turned for Gryphs as Ahmed Haroon, the fourth year player led the charge, scoring 12 of his 17 points in the quarter.

 

The third quarter was different story for the Gryphons as they struggled to generate offense against the lengthy Victoria Vikes defense as they could only go 4-18 from the field in the quarter as the Vikes picked it up offensively going 7-15 from the field and 3-7 from three as the Gryphons saw themselves down 54-45 at the end of the quarter.

 

The Gryphons continued to labour a bit until they called a timeout with 7:22 remaining in the game after Victoria extended the lead to 58-47 as they went on a 10-4 run in 2:30 minutes to cut the lead down to five. Both teams traded baskets as the closest the Gryphons got was within two with 26.1 seconds after Drew Walford went 1-2 from the free throw line. That's as close as the Gryphons would get as Victoria's Jordan Charles went 4-4 from the free throw line to ice the game for the Vikes as they defeat the Gryphs 71-65.
 

Charles, Mack Roth and Grant Sitton combined to score 48 of the 71 points for the Vikes as Haroon of Guelph led all scorers with 23 points and Taylor Boers finished the game with 16 points as went 8-9 from the free throw line.
 

The Gryphons finished the game shooting 33.8% while holding the Vikes to 37.7% from the field as they forced the Vikes into 23 turnovers.

The Gryphons will begin OUA Conference play on the road in Thunder Bay, Ont. on Friday, November 6 and Saturday, November 6 as they play two games against the Lakehead Thunderwolves.