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Jesse Barnes
Don Voaklander
Jesse Barnes of the Brock men's basketball team (#35) reaches for a rebound during the Men's Final 8 quarter-final in Alberta on April 1.
77
Winner Saskatchewan Huskies (M) 388109 1-0
73
Brock Badgers 426302 0-1
Winner
Saskatchewan Huskies (M) 388109
1-0
77
Final
73
Brock Badgers 426302
0-1
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Saskatchewan Huskies (M) 388109 22 14 15 26 77
Brock Badgers 426302 9 20 21 23 73

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | Stephen Leithwood

No. 1 Badgers topped by No. 8 Huskies 77-73

The Brock men's basketball team lost the opening game of the U SPORTS Men's Final 8 quarter-final 77-73 to the Saskatchewan Huskies, dropping them into the consolation bracket at the national championships in Edmonton on Friday, April 1.
 
Brock entered the Men's Final 8 as the No. 1 overall seed after going 14-1, including 3-0 in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) playoffs en route to their first conference title in 30 years.
 
But the Badgers couldn't generate the offence they're used to as the nation's top-ranked offence posted one of its lowest scores of the season.
 
"First of all, I am extremely proud of our team and everything we have done. We've come together to get to this position," said head coach Willy Manigat. "We never focused on the fact that we were the No. 1 seed, we knew that Saskatchewan is a good basketball team, and in this type of tournament seeding doesn't matter, you just need to go beat the team in front of you, and unfortunately today we weren't the better team."
 
The Badgers dug themselves out of an early 22-9 deficit as the lead changed 10 times throughout the match and culminated with a dramatic finish at the Saville Centre as Brock's Kascius Small-Martin broke a 69-69 tie with a layup and less than a minute remaining.
 
Tajinder Lall connected on a pair of free throws to give Brock a one-point lead until Saskatchewan's Marquavian Stephens drove to the hoop despite a double team in the paint to put the Huskies up by one with five seconds remaining.
 
Lall led all scorers with 26 points. He scored 13 points in the fourth. Lall finished with five rebounds, five assists and three steals.

"Obviously a loss like this hurts, but I'm still proud of the guys and the season we had," Lall said. "We won the OUA, the first time in a while at Brock, so I'm still happy for the guys, love the guys, and happy with everyone."

Small-Martin added 23 points while Jordan Tchuente finished with four blocks, while three of them came in the fourth.
 
Brock uncharacteristically shot 25 per cent (3-for-12) in the opening quarter before shooting 46 per cent the rest of the way.
 
"I think everyone in that locker room wants that first half back. If you look at it from the first quarter on we outplayed and outscored them, but you have to play a full 40 minutes of basketball," Manigat said. "It's not what we wanted as a group, but we have a lot to hold our heads up about and that's what we are going to continue to do, that's who we are, we're teaching these student-athletes to overcome adversity, and this is another chapter in their lives where we have a chance to overcome adversity."
 
The Badgers advance to the consolation semifinal on Saturday, April 2 where they will meet the No. 4 Dalhousie Tigers at 3 p.m. EST.

"We still need to win the game, we're not here to lose two or three games, we're here to win," added Lall. "We have to win the next two."
 
Daniel Caldwell
Daniel Caldwell (right) of the Brock men's basketball team during the U SPORTS Men's Final 8 quarter-final against the Saskatchewan Huskies at the University of Alberta on April 1.
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