It was a battle of cross-town rivals on Wednesday night at the Sault College gym as the Men's Varsity Basketball teams from Sault College and Algoma University College tangled in Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) action.
The game turned out to be an entertaining one for fans as Sault College took a 37-28 lead at half time and held on for a 63-58 victory over Algoma.
Matt Chaimbrone of Algoma and Jean Louis Ouattara of Sault College each finished the night with 21 points. Sault College also picked up strong offensive performances from Sean Seivwright who has 12 points and Brady Bolan who chipped in with nine.
Led by Chaimbrone, Algoma had Jarret Sanders and Jason Trinier each chip in with eight points in the loss. For Trinier, seven of his points came in the second half as Algoma rallied in an effort to put up a victory.
Algoma battled back in the second half as they outscored Sault College 30-26 in the half, but three missed free throws by Stefon Wilson with only seconds remaining sealed Algoma's fate.
"They played well," Sault College coach Tom Cory said of Algoma. "They have nothing to lose right now. We're trying to get one of those top two spots (which means an automatic berth in the All-Ontario's. Our work's not done yet."
"I think overall we played a very good game," said Coach Jeff Giovanatti of his team. "It's the little things that are going to put us over the top. I think we did well defensively tonight."
Giovanatti went on to say that he is pleased with the way his team has come along this season as a program.
"The strength of our team is that we come out to win every night. It's a building process right now for us and we've made a big step this year," he said. "It's the product and the players that matter. We're doing the things we need to do to compete. We've got a good group of players here."
On the other side, Cory also commented on the play of Ouattara, who was playing his first game after being suspended for two weeks by the team for conduct detrimental to the team. Ouattara missed the OCAA All-Star game as well as Sault College's game against St. Clair on the weekend.
"We suspended him for team stuff and this game was a coming out for him team-wise," Cory said. "They didn't have an answer for him in the post."
Both teams will be back in action on home court this weekend as the Lambton Lions will be in town.
Lambton will face Algoma on Friday evening at 8 p.m. and then take on Sault College on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m.
The Algoma Women's team will also be in action on the weekend as they face Mohawk on Saturday at noon.